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Trauma affected person, crushed by automobile, makes beautiful restoration
5/23/2022 12:00:00 AM
By VCU Well being Information
On July 12, 2011, every part modified for David Girard. A profitable electrician with a spouse and two younger youngsters, David had simply pushed his daughter to summer season college when he swerved off the highway and right into a phone pole. Ejected from his automobile, the large automobile resting on high of him, David was crushed, bleeding and barely aware when an ambulance rushed him to VCU Medical Heart.
It was there, at VCU Well being’s Degree-1 trauma heart, that medical doctors, surgeons, nurses and so many others started work to avoid wasting David’s life. They’d loads to do. David had shattered his pelvis and damaged all of his ribs. He injured most, if not all, of his inside organs, inflicting huge bleeding and an infection. He underwent numerous surgical procedures on the spot.
“I used to be advised I’d by no means stroll or eat once more, which was devastating to me,” David stated. “I may have died on my 39th birthday.”
Not solely did the trauma staff save David’s life, however he’s strolling, consuming and has a brand new profession as a social employee. “I wished to change into a social employee due to the social employee who helped me out a lot whereas I used to be in VCU. I wished to offer again. I wished to assist folks.”
Since his restoration, David Girard has traveled to Haiti on a number of mission journeys, making use of his electrical and building abilities to rebuilding efforts. He earned an affiliate’s diploma, a bachelor’s, then a grasp’s in social work. He now works at a social service company for the aged.
David credit his trauma, ICU and restoration groups with giving him his life again.
“At VCU, I’m an individual, not only a affected person,” he stated. “Getting out of that wheelchair strengthened my physique, thoughts and soul. If not for the encouragement from everybody at VCU, I’d nonetheless be sitting in that chair.”
The VCU Well being Degree-1 Trauma Heart treats 4,500 folks annually. It’s a singular system of care that solely a Degree 1 Trauma Heart at an educational medical heart can present.
Within the full video of the Shining Knight Galas under, members of the trauma staff give transferring accounts of what they see, do and expertise in emergency drugs. From the firefighters and paramedics who arrive on the scene and stabilize the affected person for transport, to the medical doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists on the trauma bay who focus firstly on saving life, to the bodily drugs medical doctors, nurses and therapists who give their all to returning the injured to their former operate, these are their tales.
Held yearly, VCU Well being’s Shining Knight Gala acknowledges the “shining knights” who save folks like David day-after-day. This 12 months’s gala was held nearly on Might 21. The gala serves as a fundraiser for VCU Well being’s harm and violence prevention applications.
Whether or not somebody carried out CPR, carried out a surgical process, offered emotional assist or bodily assist at a significant time, all of us have Shining Knights who’ve touched our lives who should be honored and thanked.
Assist VCU Well being’s Shining Knight Gala.
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