Trauma Surgery

It starts at about 4:15 AM. My alarm goes off, and I jump out of bed. I would hit snooze if I could, but there is so much to do once I get to the hospital that I cannot afford to waste any time. Utah in January is bitter cold, but I run outside to my car wearing nothing more than scrubs--I need the cold to help wake me up. While I make the 7 minute drive to the hospital, I eat a banana and some string cheese and I give myself a pep talk.

Once I get inside the hospital, I print a list with the names of all the trauma patients, and my fellow intern and I go to work. We check on each of the patients and write a note in their hospital chart. After we see all the patients on the regular hospital floors, we move to the ICU. The patients in the ICU are sick--VERY sick. They are connected to machines that breathe for them and monitors that measure the pressures inside their brains. They have tubes that feed them and tubes that emtpy their bladders.

Once I have checked on these patients, the entire trauma team meets and goes from room to room. We decide what needs to be done to get each patient better and out of the hospital, and then my job the rest of the day is to get all of this done. I run from one place to the next making phone calls, talking to other doctors, filling out paperwork, etc.

If the dreaded trauma pager goes off, I must stop what I am doing and run to the emergency room where the trauma team assembles, waiting to see how mangled the patient will be. Most of our traumas are car accident victims. Broken bones, injured internal organs, and head injuries are common. Two days ago we had two patients come in with spinal cord injuries. One of them was a 15 year old kid who was hit by a car while riding his bike. His spinal cord is completely cut in half--he will never walk again.

Some of the trauma patients have such significant injuries when they come in that we have to rush them straight to the operating room. One girl who was injured in a car wreck last week suffered a ruptured spleen. We got her to the OR and made a long incision on her abdomen. As soon as we entered her belly, blood came gushing out. Her spleen was pulverized. We removed her spleen and then the orthopedic and vascular surgeons repaired her arm which was barely attached to her shoulder. Another guy came in after flying face first through the windshield of his car. His nose was hanging on hs face by a thread.

I work until late most days, and I go home tired. Being tired and getting a good night's sleep do not always correlate unfortunately. Even when I go to bed early, I still have a hard time getting a good night's sleep. My mind replays the day in my head, and I can't help but feel a little bit of anxiety about what the next day will bring. Being on trauma surgery is not easy.

I will be doing this trauma stuff for a month. I hope to share some interesting stories with you guys. Many of my stories will be tragic, but I am sure there will be some happy endings as well. My next day off is in two weeks, so hold on tight...