Acting on your own without direction can save a life

First off I am sorry for not blogging recently. My 7 followers deserve better of me. It has been a crazy time with graduation season in full swing.You all must understand that I really am still on cloud nine over my daughter's graduation from medical school. I had no idea what a wonderful feeling it was to be the father of a new physician. My Dad told me many years ago that it was a special proud day in his life when I became a physician and I thought he was being kind of sappy at that time. Well I guess now I know what he meant and I must say it really was cool--REALLY cool!!
Now for a new heart-warmed story
It was spring break time 1987. I remember that because my patient was home on spring break from Western Michigan University when he and a few buddies went out for a good time and a few beers in Warren Michigan. They apparently got involved in a little road rage incident on Groesbeck highway and decided to settle the squabble in a little rumble on the side of the road. Unfortunately, as so often happens, somebody invariably gets hurt and the ER gets busy with half drunk kids. My patient, a wrestler at college, was not prepared for the guy he decided to fight that night because he would never have guessed that his opponent was going to stab him in the chest with a six inch swithblade!! To make matters even worse the blade went directly into my patients heart!! It was at that point that the fight stopped and my frat boy was thrown into the car and taken directly to Bi-County hospital ER. With a trail of blood his friends dragged him into the ER screaming that their friend had been stabbed in the heart!!
Well, every ER has a ward secretary and they are
generally responsible for calling people who are needed and usually do so after the ER doctor asks them to call any specialist needed. This night Mrs Poole, without instruction, jumped out of the routine and made the command decision to call me as soon as she saw the injured college student come through the doors. Mrs Poole was a bright women and had been on the job many years. She also knew that I lived only 5 minutes away from Bi-County.
My phone rang at home at 11:30 PM. I had just gone to bed. The kids were all small and very much asleep. I answered the phone immediatly, as I so often did, so as not to awaken the babies.It was Mrs Poole. She said "Come now-Stab wound heart-Come now!!" I jumped out of bed,through on some jeans and a tee-shirt and jumped into my new Jimmy jeep. I hit the Hoover and 696 interchange moments later and turned left onto the service drive without using the required Michigan Left turn-a-round. I was well over the posted speed limit as I turned and thats when I saw the police car in front of me coming out of the Dunkin Donuts. I continued on and in the rearview mirror saw the flashers come on. I pulled over and the police were there in seconds--2 cops--both out of their cruiser. I rolled down my window and said" I am Dr. Caralis--there is a stab to the heart at Bi-County!!". I think they recognized me because it was not long before that I was chief general surgery resident and most cops knew us as the surgeons in the ER at Bi-county. In any case they acted and asked that I follow them to the ER. With flashers and sirens I followed them at 80 MPH to Bi-County. It seemed like no more than 5 minutes had elapsed from the call at home untill I was running into the ER following the drops of blood to the trauma room. I pointed to Mrs. Poole thru the glass window and gave her a thumbs up and mouthed "thank-you".
What happened next was quite surreal. The trauma room was in a state of anxiety and commotion. It was not chaotic, however, as everybody was doing their jobs. The patient had just arrested in front of them and they were in full CPR mode. Endo-tracheal intubation, large bore IV's etc all happening at once. Nobody noticed my entry into the trauma room except one ER nurse who saw me enter and go directly to put on a pair of surgical gloves. The stab wound was obvious to all and was right over the young man's heart. Just as I put on my gloves and grabbed a scalpel, the ER Dr. says very clearly and in a sort of helpless tone "If we just had a damn heart surgeon in this hospital we could actually hope to save this poor kid!!" Well, he had no sooner finished his sentence when I tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hi. I am Dr. Caralis and I am a heart surgeon !!"I will never forget the look of astonishment on that doctor's face or what he said, " IT"S A MIRACLE!!" I proceeded to perform ER anterior thoracotomy and pericardiotomy (opened the chest and the sac around the heart) and suture repaired the stab wound to the patients right ventricle of his heart. I then de-fibrillated the heart and restored normal rhytym and vital signs. I took him to OR and formally explored for other injuries and closed his chest . That young man survived and was discharged home 6 days later.
Mrs. Poole was given a special award by the hospital for her acting on her own without direction and for saving a life. She was voted Employee of the year. The ER doctor was a moonlighting medical resident who became a Cardiologist and practices in Ohio and still believes in miracles and always re-tells this story at conventions. I am still a heart surgeon and still cutting open chests for a living and will continue to do so until it just isn't fun anymore. That was a night I will never forget. It warms my heart just blogging about it. Thanks for following.