Accidents Happen

This weekend a patient was brought to the hospital after a terrible accident on a lake. She was on the back of a wave runner and fell off. As she fell, the high-pressure jet of water that shoots out of the back of the watercraft shot into her rectum. She was rushed to the hospital, but she exsanguinated (bled to death) in the OR. After spending the last week in the SICU, I am starting to realize that all of us are accidents waiting to happen. Obviously, we increase our chances by undertaking high-risk activities, but we can never fully immunize ourselves against mishaps.

We have a patient with dementia who suffered a severe head injury after wandering into traffic during rush hour. Another patient fell over her walker and suffered brain damage. We have a kid who was riding a motorcycle with no helmet and flip-flops who crashed and injured his head. We have another kid who was offroading on his motorcycle and fell, injuring his liver which lead to massive internal bleeding. After heroic efforts by the nurses and multiple trips to the OR, his bleeding stabilized and he appears to be heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, in the room next to him was another patient who was not so lucky. He was a 16 yr-old young man who was found ejected from his vehicle laying face down on the ground. He was helicoptered to the hospital, but his brain injury was devastating. This morning his family came and we performed the necessary tests to confirm brain death. His mom and dad and a few friends sat in the room sobbing as we tested whether he would initiate a spontaneous breathe when his body was challenged with high levels of CO2. It was a heartbreaking scene to behold. Yesterday, the patient's family was going along living life as usual. Today their teenage son died and they signed the paperwork to donate his organs.