From the Trauma Center to the Negotiating Table: Realizing the true impact of a coordinated effort

My dad had his first heart attack in 1997. (For those of you who don't know, my father passed in 2006).

The first time my dad was in the hospital was well before Steve and I were married. I remember so many thoughts came flooding through my mind on that day.

One of those being, "When the day comes for me to marry, I guess Ed will walk me down the aisle."

I've known my brother-in-law Ed since I was about five years old. He married my sister Shelley in 1990.

When I got a call last September that Ed was in the hospital, it was devastating. Thankfully, Ed and Shelley live directly across the bay from Baltimore where they have one of the country's best trauma centers.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the R. Adams Crowley Shock Trauma Center.

The medical staff there are some of the best in the world. Doctors come there from all across the world  to study trauma response skills.

But first, here's what happened to Ed...

It was late September. Ed was in the shed getting some decorations down from the attic area when he made a misstep and fell about 16 feet.

During the fall, his head collided with a metal bracket that held together two of the support beams. (Just to give you an idea, the metal bracket was bent in half afterwards. That's how hard he hit it.)

The odd thing is that Shelley was with him in the shed when he fell. We don't think she had ever really spent any time in that shed before that day. That's divine intervention for you.

At the time, I was in a training class in Ellicott City, wishing for an excuse to leave. Ed's accident was not exactly what I had in mind. I rushed right over to Shock Trauma to be with my sister and nephew and hear an update on Ed. The helicopter ride from Tolchester to Baltimore was a mere 7 minutes!

The initial CT scan showed a brain bleed, six skull fractures and seven broken ribs. A subsequent CT scan showed that he had also clipped his carotid artery and a fistula had formed behind his eye.

Ed had no idea where he was or why he was there.

Needless to say, the Shock Trauma center was exactly where he needed to be.

The man who came up with the idea for the center, Dr. Crowley, was a Vietnam vet who had discovered that there was a precise window of time, coined “The Golden Hour”, that gives trauma victims the best chance of survival. He organized a system and selected a central location where a dedicated team of professionals can work together to treat severe trauma in such a tight time frame.

Everyone has a role to play and they stick to that role fiercely, as if it means life or death. Very often it does.

The cardiologists focus on the heart.  Neurologists focus on brain. You get the idea. The reason they are so good at what they do is because each person stays in their own lane.

Ed was in need of just that kind of help. Without it, we don't know where he would be today.

The initial fall happened on September 27, 2017.  

The next day, we learned Ed had a level 5 traumatic brain injury. He was confused, showed inappropriate behavior, and was easily distracted. He couldn't remember his own name. Yet, he was alert and could respond to simple commands.

The head neuro specialist performed an angiogram and discovered the fistula behind Ed’s right eye. His veins couldn't handle the pressure of the bone fracture, and a fistula formed. Without intervention, it would have burst and caused a catastrophic brain bleed. They took him to surgery right away to repair the fistula.

From there, the orthopedic team took over. They did X-rays to diagnose his wrist pain. They determined the wrist was broken and applied a cast.

Up next were the ENT doctors, supported by the Neuro team. They determined that internal swelling around a cranial nerve was causing facial paralysis. We were told that it may or may not get better, but surgery could definitely help.

Meanwhile, the occupational and physical therapists were supporting Ed with his everyday activities: walking, eating, etc.

After 9 days in the Neuro ICU, Ed was finally discharged to a rehabilitation center to begin more extensive therapy. He was unsteady on his feet and weak due to losing 28 pounds.  He continued to struggle with short term memory loss. His therapy providers were just as crucial to his recovery as his initial care team.

Every role matters in trauma cases. No one can take a back seat. Everyone must perform to their fullest every day.

Ed was discharged from rehab on October 12th. It would still take one shoulder surgery and 7 months of therapy before he finally returned to work this past May.

Thankfully, he didn't have to have reconstructive surgery. And, thankfully, his arteries were repaired correctly. He also had no lasting brain damage.

It was touch and go at first and quite a dramatic experience for the whole family. Ed, a guy who had been a huge daredevil his whole life, was at the mercy of a coordinated medical team. He would have not come out on top without them being so close by.

If it wasn't such a precise, coordinated effort, things could have turned out much differently.

The founder of the Shock Trauma learned something invaluable in Vietnam.

When you have a team of professionals who are the best at what they do, just get out of the way and let them do what they do best. Don't ask them to do something different and don't get in their way.

While we certainly aren't dealing with life and death situations in real estate, I can admire and relate to this concept of staying in your lane and letting the professionals shine.

Whether it’s our stager or our professional photographer and videographer, we know not to tell them how to do their jobs or put them in a situation in which they cannot do their best work. We set them up for success, stand aside and let them work their magic.

My sister Shelley, who works as pharmacist, had to defer to the experts when asking about Ed's status. The neuro surgeons spoke on his neurological condition, while the cardiologist gave updates on his heart and arteries.

One thing they never did? Spoke about something they weren't the absolute expert on.

That’s something I admire and recognized right away at the hospital. It’s a strategy that leads to the very best possible outcome. At Benson & Mangold Real Estate, we want to be the best of the best in real estate.

We recruit the top professionals in their fields to support us in presenting your home at it’s very best.

Like the founder of the Shock Trauma, we make sure to organize their efforts to create a real estate marketing machine.

Curious what our team can do for you?

Until next month,

Courtney