Brian Boyle, a former Prince George’s Shock Trauma patient, sends this good news!
I just got back into town from the half-ironman triathlon in Michigan and the good news is… I FINISHED! I didn’t have any medical complications at all and I never felt so good - it was definitely the highlight of my life and my journey back to good health.
Check out these pictures!
Brian Boyle, who has previously posted here about his life-and-death experience at Prince George’s Hospital, printed a piece about his experience in the Washington Post this weekend.
He says that if the hospital had not been there, he wouldn’t have survived. He makes the point that elected leaders need to consider the human impact of the political tug of war going on over the hospitals.
Brian was also featured in today’s Washington Examiner. That story is available here.
Read the Washington Post article below or here.
I Owe My Life to Prince George’s Hospital
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Three years ago, I was a very sick patient in the shock trauma unit of Prince George’s Hospital Center. I wouldn’t be here right now without the determination and support of the amazing staff of that hospital. I hope that the politicians who hold the future of the hospital in their hands can take a step take back and realize what would be lost if it closes.
On July 6, 2004, a month after graduating from Maurice J. McDonough High School, I was involved in a devastating car accident — one that altered my life forever. While I was driving home from swim practice, my 1994 Chevy Camaro was hit on the driver’s side by a dump truck. The impact of the crash demolished the Camaro, and rescue workers had to use the “jaws of life” to pry open the surreal wreckage to reach me. I was in grave condition as I was transported to Prince George’s Hospital. My parents later told me that I had only 15 minutes to live. My heart had been knocked across my chest, and I had lost 60 percent of my blood.
I suffered a broken clavicle, pelvis and ribs, and severe nerve damage to my left shoulder. I was stabilized after several operations, but it was unclear whether I had brain damage or what my quality of life would be.
I spent more than two months in a chemically induced coma. I lost 100 pounds, and my parents stood over my bed and wept at my condition. When I regained consciousness, I was still in excruciating pain from the severe injuries.
Over the next few months, I endured paralysis, pneumonia, infections, seizures and more pain. But the nurses and doctors at Prince George’s Hospital never gave up. Along with my family and friends, those compassionate and caring doctors and nurses became part of my support group and were instrumental in my recovery.
Even as I improved physically, I remained confused and struggled with amnesia and basic functions. Then, suddenly, I started talking. All the nurses and doctors ran in, breaking into tears when they heard me speak. It was the moment they had been hoping for.
My miracle was the result of their care.
My mother says that Prince George’s hospital does not get the credit it deserves — my family knows that the people there make miracles happen, because I am alive and thriving.
After 14 surgeries, 36 blood transfusions and 13 plasma treatments, I am doing well, beyond anyone’s expectations. I just finished my second year at St. Mary’s College, where I compete on the swim team. I am also a personal trainer and am training to compete in an ironman triathlon.
If Prince George’s Hospital had not been there, I would not be here. I know that there are many people like me whose lives were saved by the hospital’s caring and talented staff. I can’t imagine our community without the hospital.
I urge county leaders to do whatever it takes to keep Prince George’s Hospital open. Our lives depend on it.
– Brian Boyle
Welcome, Md.
The following was posted as a comment by a young man who likely would have died had he not been taken to the shock trauma unit of Prince George’s Hospital. It’s an amazing story of will, medicine and caring.
Share your stories about your experiences at Bowie Health Center, Gladys Spellman Specialty Hospital and Nursing Center, Glenridge Medical Center, Laurel Regional Hospital, Prince George’s Hospital Center and Senior Health Center.
Imagine what could have happened if those health facilities had not been there for you or your loved ones.
Save the hospitals!
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My name is Brian Boyle, I am twenty one years old, and two years ago I was a very sick patient in the shock trauma unit of Prince Georges Hospital. The reason why I was a patient in there is because I was hit by a dump truck on my driver’s side door on my way home from swim practice and my body was crushed from the impact. The force of the crash knocked my heart across my chest, damaging all of my organs, losing over 60% of my blood, collapsing one of my lungs, and also breaking several ribs along with my clavicle and pelvis. I was trapped in my car at the accident scene and it took the jaws of life to get me out of the vehicle in just enough time to get me flown out. I remember being told later by my parents that I only had fifteen minutes left to live so time definitely was of the essence that day.
When I arrived at shock trauma, the main concern was my heart and to get the blood to stop flowing into places where it wasn’t supposed to be going, and after several operations, there was nothing else to do but wait. As each day went along in my hospitalization period, they said that I was in God’s hands; it was unsure whether I would leave my hospital room in a wheelchair or a body bag, and the day that everyone knew that I would live would be the day that I left the shock trauma unit. In all actuality, my parents told me that I was the worst patient in the unit for many weeks besides those who were on their way to the morgue. I was in room nineteen for over two months, and for those months I was on the brink and slipping fast. In a chemically induced coma, I laid there on my back paralyzed and in a state of total confusion. I woke up not knowing how I got there because of all the medication and amnesia that was given to me.
It was a horrifying experience, especially when I tried to look out of my room and saw nurses pushing stretchers by with white sheets covering the other patients because they were not as lucky as me. My parents would come into my room and would stand there and hysterically cry the whole time, and try and explain to me the situation that I was in.
I will never forget the day where I learned how to talk again. After several attempts to get me to saw a few syllables, one lucky day it just happened out of nowhere. My respiratory therapist hooked this object up to my neck, and I struggled to sound out a few words and all of a sudden I just starting talking. I could not believe I was talking, and neither could anybody else because there was a possibility that I had brain damage. All the nurses and doctors came running in and they all broke out in tears instantly when they saw me. My parents came running around the corner because they had just arrived for visiting hours, and they were awestruck. I remember telling my dad that everything was going to be okay, and he couldn’t keep his composure and just burst into tears. As for my mom, I don’t think she stopped crying for the entire time that I was in there. The day that I learned how to talk again was truly a miraculous day.
After fourteen surgeries, thirty-six blood transfusions, and 13 plasma treatments, things were finally looking positive for me again. This all happened two years ago, but it all still seems like yesterday to me. I honestly wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t have the support and determination from the amazing faculty and staff of Prince Georges Hospital, especially Dr. Catavenis, Dr. Daee, Dr. Naficy, and all the wonderful people in shock trauma who went above and beyond to save me. I am forever grateful for all of your support.
As I look back at it all, I will never forget those two months where my life was on standby. Room nineteen in the Shock Trauma Unit of Prince Georges Hospital is not just a room to me, it is the place where I was saved, and is also the place where I found out that miracles happen to those who believe, and I want to thank my family and the Shock Trauma Unit for believing in me…
Currently, I just finished up my second year in college, and I am also swimming on the college swim team. I am writing a book and am a full time personal trainer at a local gym. Besides that, I am training to compete in the Ironman triathlon and I am hoping that my story will be broadcasted on NBC when the Ironman premieres so I can get my story out there to gain more support for Prince Georges Hospital Center. Ever since I left the hospital I have been trying to figure out why my life was saved and now I think that reason is to save the hospital that saved me…
To learn more about my story you can check out my two websites below which will also keep you up-to-date on everything that I am doing and when I will be on T.V. doing interviews about my story and recovery.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=17655643
Sick and tired of hospital bailout blunders
Gazette, June 28, 2007
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The continual threats regarding the Dimensions Healthcare System crisis in Prince George’s have become a disappointing reminder of county leaders’ inability to resolve the problem.
Read more here.
Washington Post has another great editorial about the politics at Prince George’s hospitals. Everyone agrees — this is not the way to deliver healthcare.
What do you think?
Mr. Johnson’s Threat
The Prince George’s hospital system becomes a bargaining chip.
Sunday, June 24, 2007; B06
IT WAS barely two months ago that Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson backed state legislation to save Dimensions Healthcare System, which runs Prince George’s Hospital Center and several smaller facilities, from financial collapse. Now, along with some members of the County Council who irresponsibly torpedoed the legislation, he is threatening to withhold county subsidies from Dimensions, which would cause the hospital to close within months and possibly weeks. Prince Georgians should be getting sick and tired of their elected officials playing Russian roulette with a hospital system that serves 180,000 people a year.
Mr. Johnson’s gambit, which is devoid of any long-term strategy, involves forcing out four members of the Dimensions board of directors and replacing them with his loyalists. If Dimensions refuses, Mr. Johnson warns, the county will withhold payments, starting with $2 million due by the end of June. He does not bother to explain how such a shuffle will fix a structural problem at Dimensions that has drained $55 million from county coffers in the past five years. That’s probably because it won’t.
Mr. Johnson appears to be positioning the county to wield more direct control over Dimensions and thereby to exert more leverage in negotiations over its fate. But political gamesmanship will do nothing to bail out the hospital center, or to fashion a workable blueprint to restructure the hospital system, or to invest in its restoration to sufficient financial health that a first-rate university or research hospital will take it over. That’s the plan that state officials and some lawmakers have pushed — a plan that includes heavy infusions of state aid to get the system back on its feet.
For decades, the trend in Maryland and elsewhere has been for counties to get out of the business of managing hospitals; they are simply not up to the job. Unfortunately that sound lesson has been lost on officeholders in Prince George’s, who see the hospital center and other Dimensions facilities as bargaining chips. By impeding the way forward to a solution for the county’s hospital system, they are gambling with the health of tens of thousands of residents.
MORE ABOUT THE COUNTY COUNCIL’S ATTEMPTS TO TAKE OVER THE HOSPITAL BOARD. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?
Ultimatum For Prince George’s Hospital
County Seeks 4 Resignations
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 21, 2007; B01
The ailing Prince George’s hospital system will receive no more public money until four members of its board of directors resign, County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said this week.
Johnson’s comments were the first to tie county funding to a shake-up of the board of Dimensions Healthcare System, the nonprofit company that runs Prince George’s Hospital Center and four other county health facilities.
The county executive and some key County Council members have argued that the Dimensions board has mismanaged the hospital system, compounding its fiscal problems.
Last week, top county officials requested the resignations of four board members, a shake-up that could give elected county leaders greater say over hospital operations. The request was made by Johnson’s chief of staff, Michael D. Herman, who is also a board member, during a closed board meeting.
The board tabled a debate on the request.
Johnson’s comments this week set up a showdown between the 11-member volunteer board and top county officials over tens of millions of dollars in funding that hospital officials have said is needed to keep their doors open.
“There are many deficiencies in the hospital that must be addressed,” Johnson said. “We need a board that can address these things and isn’t going to just wait around for a check.”
Also yesterday, the Maryland Board of Public Works agreed to spend $3.2 million in state money on renovations at the hospital center in Cheverly. But it did so only after receiving assurances that the county could not withhold the state dollars from the system.
Johnson wants Dimensions Board Chairman Calvin Brown to step down by Monday, along with three other board members: the chairmen of the boards of Prince George’s Hospital Center and Laurel Regional Hospital, and the former president of the Prince George’s County Medical Society.
Under the executive’s proposal, remaining board members would select the replacements, choosing community members rather than Dimensions employees or board members from the system’s hospitals.
Among the board members not targeted for resignation by Johnson were Herman and County Council Chairman Camille Exum (D-Seat Pleasant), along with two other members who were nominated to the Dimensions board by Herman.
Critics say Johnson is essentially trying to take over the system.
The hospital system serves 180,000 patients each year, many of them poor and uninsured. It has lost money for years and received repeated infusions of public cash. After the General Assembly session ended in April with no long-term solution to the system’s problems, Johnson and the council agreed to use an unspecified amount of tax dollars to keep the hospital open through June 2008.
At the time, hospital leaders said they did not believe there were conditions attached to the county funds. But Johnson argued Tuesday that the hospital board had already agreed to restructure in February, under an arrangement that secured the hospital a $5 million payment from the county.
“I am not going to authorize any more money until they honor their commitment,” Johnson said.
Hospital leaders have said repeatedly that without additional state or county funds, they will be forced to begin to shut down the system, sending thousands of patients to other area hospitals and shuttering one of the region’s busiest trauma centers.
The board is not scheduled to meet again until July 12, but Brown said an emergency meeting may now be scheduled. He declined to comment on Johnson’s ultimatum until the board had a chance to meet.
Another board member targeted for resignation rejected Johnson’s allegation that board mismanagement has been responsible for the system’s years of trouble. William Williams, 72, a retired federal government official, serves on the Dimensions board as a representative of the Laurel hospital.
He argued that a lack of reliable funding and perpetual uncertainty about the future have made growth impossible.
He cited as an example difficulties replacing two pieces of equipment, each more than a decade old, that could improve the bottom line at the Laurel hospital. He said hospital leaders worked out a deal to lease more modern versions. A few weeks ago, the vendor pulled the plug on the deal, citing fear that the system might go out of business.
Welcome to this conversation about the Prince George’s hospital system crisis.
Feel free to comment on any posting or weigh in with your thoughts on how we can save the hospitals!
