Tag Archives: Surgery

The first surgery that was performed on me was as a result of my blood pressure dropping. The cardiac surgeon on call ordered me up to the “Heart Tower” as the orthopedic surgeon on call was still counting broken bones. His experience would tell him that this type of head-on collision had caused a tear in my aorta, a common deceleration injury.

Every time I go to see my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. D., he tells me the story of our first meeting. “We were standing in the E.R., and I was counting bones and Dr. H. said, “We gotta get her to the heart tower.” He said, “I need supplies, we’ve never done orthopedic surgery up there and there’s no elevator.” Dr. H. then, very calmly said, “Man, you don’t understand. We gotta go NOW. Her blood pressure is bottoming out!” He barely raised his voice, but conveyed the urgency of the situation to him, he said. He realized how close to death I was when he looked at Dr. H.’s face.