TRAUMA: Life in the E.R.

At about 4 pm on Tuesday I was at the high school feeding my fish when JoLyn called. She had received a message that Denise had been thrown from her horse and was being taken to Lakeview with a possible concussion. She couldn't get off work, so she asked if I would go. I drove to the hospital thinking that the best case scenario was that I would wait with her for a couple of hours then drive her home, and that the worst case scenario would be that I would have to take her to my house to keep an eye on her over night.

When I got to Lakeview I found Denise waiting to be taken for a CT scan of her head. She slept for a while, then they came to take her for the CT scan, then she slept again while we waited for the results. Sometime around 6 pm the doctor came in and announced that Denise had a small bleed on her brain (basically a bruise under the skull) and a possible fracture of her occipital bone (just above her eye). They decided that they should send her to the University Hospital where they had a more experienced neurosurgery department in case things worsened. Jo arrived just after that and for about the next 20 or 30 minutes they prepped her for the move. It got a little nerve wracking at that point as 5 paramedics came into the room to get a briefing on her and strap her down to a back board.

I followed the ambulance and arrived at the hospital just in time to walk in with her, but then I was whisked away by a social worker as someone yelled, "Incoming trauma!" Jo arrived about 10 minutes later, and about 10 minutes after that they allowed us to go back to see Denise. They had treated her as though she had not been at another hospital and they gave her a full trauma work-up.

Here Denise is resting uncomfortably in the E.R. at the U. The neurosurgeon was happy with the scan that had been done at Lakeview, so he decided that he did not want another one done right away. Then the plastic surgeon came in to consult with her about the possible fracture. The scan at Lakeview had been done on the back of her head, so the view of her occipital bone was not really clear. They arranged for another scan of her face to be done later that night.

We waited in the E.R. for about an hour before moving her to I.C.U. We had time to take some pictures while we were there. Did Denise tell the nurse that she was injured on the job? Could she even read the sign while she was strapped to a gurney with a cervical collar on?

Everything on the monitors is looking good, I guess.

This doesn't inspire confidence. I was going to snap a picture of the sign next to this which said something to the effect that any trauma resuscitation with burns needed to be videotaped for teaching purposes, but the nurse walked in just then and I kind of felt like a jerk.
Here we are going up to the I.C.U. to get Denise settled in for the night. Watch out for the blind corner!
Here is Denise all settled in for the night. They were planning to keep her here for the night and do another CT scan this morning, then reassess her condition and assign her to a regular room if all went well. The doctor said that she should plan on staying for at least two days, so Denise may spend Christmas in the hospital.

The doctors all seemed fairly confident that her codition wasn't serious, but they wanted to take every precaution. Denise may not feel very lucky right now, but I saw and heard things both in the E.R. and in the I.C.U. that made me feel like she is very lucky. Hopefully in the future she will never get on a horse again without her helmet! As long as she is in the I.C.U. she is only allowed to have family members visit, and only two at a time. Once she is moved to a regular room she can have more visitors. The hospital also doesn't want to be innundated with a bunch of calls, so call me 660-5367 or my mom 499-7050 or Jo 499-9053 for information. I will be picking up my mom and Rick at 9:30 and we will go straight to the hospital. We don't get good cell coverage there, so leave a message if you can't get through and we will call you back.