Just another day

I'm going to type all this as a sort of therapy for me so bear with me here. It's been a traumatic couple of weeks.

Times in the OR have been abnormally intense for a couple of weeks. I felt like I was beginning to bounce back from it and was excited for my day off with Kerwyn to go on a date. Our plans included dinner at St Elmos steakhouse followed by the state fair. One of my staff had convinced me that we should go to the Sugarland concert (he had already given his 6th row tickets to someone else) and so we bought tickets after the opening act was over and walked into the grandstand. We got comfortable and were excited for the show. We noticed some lightning in the distance which was news to us since we had no idea a storm was coming. We were kind of excited for a great concert and a fun lightning show in front of us. Someone in front of us showed us their smartphone weather radar which made me a little concerned but someone came on stage and explained that the show would continue and that they would let us know if we needed to evacuate.

Just a couple of minutes later an erie wind picked up and sent dirt flying everywhere. Before we could even react the tarp blew off the set and seconds later the whole stage collapsed. It was terrifying. I was afraid it was a tornado and that the grandstand would be coming down next and wanted to get out of there. Kerwyn had a different plan and pinned me to the bleachers so we didn't get blown away or trampled. He told me to start praying and so I sent a desperate plea to God to get us out of there. It was chaos with people screaming and crying and scrambling for cover all around. A long 30 seconds or so later I convinced Kerwyn that we needed to get off the bleachers. We climbed over bleachers to avoid the crowd on the stairs all the way down and ran onto the track to help.

There was an oddly clear path for us to the far end of the stage from where we were sitting so we just ran up there to see how we could help. En route someone threw a paramedic bag at us which I really think was divine intervention. We came to one girl with her cheek ripped off but otherwise ok so we moved on to another girl who was unconscious. We assessed her and got out a bag/mask device and began breathing for her. She had a pulse but was unresponsive. We just stayed with her while others came to help as well. The stage structure was clearly still unstable and people were moving it trying to get people out from under it. It was terrifying. Someone else held a tarp over us so our patient wasn't drenched and hypothermic in the process. We used some chairs as a makeshift stretcher and carried her out to where the ambulances were supposed to be coming. We saw a couple of dead bodies in the process and lots of other seriously injured people. It felt like forever before the first ambulance showed up.

Kerwyn fought and got us on one of the first ambulances with another sick patient. We rode in breathing for her all the way to Methodist. Once there I quickly informed the trauma team (my fellow residents and staff) that there were tons more that would be coming and more resources were quickly mobilized. Kerwyn stayed and helped keep ambulances moving through quickly and I took care of several of the other trauma patients.

It was amazing to see how everyone pulled together. I did some quick procedures that helped stabilize a couple of patients and then helped keep people moving through the ED with countless neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery consults. Our initial patient was the first one whisked back to the OR with the neurosurgeons.

Today I got to meet her family who were so relieved to meet one of the people who took care of their daughter/wife/mom/friend. It was really emotional as they just thanked me profusely and realized the miracle it was that God put Kerwyn and I there to help get her quickly to the ED and off to surgery. The neurosurgeons said she got to the ED just in the nick of time. I'm not sure what her outcome will eventually be but I'll keep a close eye on her and spend more time visiting with this family that I have an instant bond with.


I am so thankful for my medical training in instances like this. We had several other doctors come up and offer to help and every patient there had multiple trained medical personnel with them. It was incredible but awful. There was something neat about taking care of a patient with Kerwyn and experiencing what it is like to try and get anything done while the ambulance is careening around the city. It has been amazing to reflect on the whole experience and realize how it all lined up perfectly for us to even be at the concert and to be equipped to care for this one girl and quickly get her to the hospital.

I've been thinking about the Mother Theresa quote, "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." While I'm ok without all this action I pray God continues to bless me with opportunities to reach out to others in whatever form that takes.