Today, I hugged a stranger

Today, I hugged a stranger. And I didn’t know his name. We had just operated on a young man, probably in his late teens.  He sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, and was in critical condition.  When he lost pulses in the trauma bay, we cut his chest open and spread his ribs.   His lifeless body laid there as we held his heart in the palm of our hands, and pumped it — over and over again — to mimic life.  We placed a clamp on his aorta to minimize blood loss, and to ensure that blood preferentially travels to the brain. We pumped his heart tirelessly, afraid to let go, afraid to give up, afraid to say “enough.” And just when we thought we had lost him forever, a flicker of hope jarred us as his heart began to beat again.  We rushed him to the operating room, and a team of anesthesiologists, nurses, and residents met us in the room.  We worked together quietly and efficiently, all too well rehearsed. “Male in his late teens, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.  He has a left femoral cordis, and two large bore peripheral IVs.  A resuscitative thoracotomy was performed in the trauma bay.  Aortic cross-clamp time was 2053.” That was all the information they needed as we worked to put him on the operating table and prepare him for surgery. In two hours, he had received multiple blood products, and we were not able to control the bleeding.  When a patient receives massive blood transfusions, it often thins ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Cardiology Emergency Surgery Source Type: blogs