- 1-800-248-1199
Awaking From a Nightmare
Adam Porter of Linton, Ind., lived through a nightmare - but for Adam's family the fact that he lived is a dream come true. In April 2001, Adam was helping his uncle, Bob Houston, cut tree limbs to make room for a structure they were building near the garage. His uncle cut away branches he could reach from the ground while 17-year-old Adam volunteered to climb and trim the higher ones. In an instant, this backyard chore took a fateful turn. Unknown to Adam, the tree had grown around an electrical wire. "The tree was hot. It was live and I didn't know it," said Adam. "I was electrocuted and I never even touched any power lines." Instantly, 7,200 volts of electricity shot through Adam's body, out the back of his head and down his left leg, knocking him unconscious. Adam's body, totally limp, hit branch after branch during the fall. He landed with no pulse, no breath and no sign of life. Yelling for someone to call 911, Adam's uncle ran to his neighbor, Susan Childress, a critical care nurse who performed CPR, keeping Adam breathing until an ambulance arrived. Adam was rushed to the local hospital where doctors determined the extent of his injuries. Then he was taken by LifeLine to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where doctors performed emergency surgery to stabilize his wounds. The next day, he was transferred to Indiana's only pediatric burn unit and into the hands of Dr. John Coleman, chief of plastic surgery and director of the burn unit at Riley Hospital for Children. "With burns, it's a race," said Dr. Coleman. "A race to get the patient stabilized and the wounds covered before they get infected." For two weeks, Adam was on a ventilator and in a coma while the medical staff tended to three major wounds at the back of his skull, his right shoulder and his left leg. Unfortunately, the infection in Adam's left leg became too great. Doctors had to perform an emergency amputation to reduce the risk of more infection. Once Adam was off the ventilator, the surgeons at Riley got to work on the rest of his injuries. "Dr. Coleman is amazing," Adam said. "He pieced me back together. My shoulder was just a big hole. He patched it up and made it look real nice." For two months, a team of specialists gathered to assess Adam's recovery from the accident and the 14 surgeries that followed. "At Riley, the whole burn team approach is completely multidisciplinary," Dr. Coleman said. Nurses, doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, pharmacists, psychiatrists and social workers all are involved in a patient's care. "With burns, you have someone who goes from being a perfectly healthy person one minute to being relatively incapacitated the next," said Dr. Coleman. "It creates a lot of emotion and requires a lot of care - physically, mentally and socially. And, as with any injury that devastating - because of the physical deformity and the prolonged recovery - it's vital that the family be involved." Adam's uncle appreciated the family-centered approach at Riley Hospital. "The doctors and nurses took care of me as much as they took care of Adam," said Houston. "They were always honest with me. They told me things that I didn't want to hear, but that I needed to hear. I don't see how they could have been better." |
|
|
Copyright © 2000-2008 Web Design: NetMediaOne |
