High level of trauma care saves lives
The ALERT Helicopter takes to the skies after responding to a call in Lakeside in April.
From left to right, KRMC Trauma Coordinator Neil Heino, emergency medicine specialist John VanArendonk, and general surgeon Stephen Milheim, were intimately involved in the hospital's recent verification as a Level III Trauma Center.
On a gorgeous spring day in late March, Garrett Morrison, 24, became the poster boy for the benefits of Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s Level III trauma center.
Morrison, a resident of Lakeside, moved to the Flathead Valley about four years ago to run the computer department for Youth With A Mission.
He had planned to spend about two hours snowboarding at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area on that sunny Saturday.
After about an hour on the mountain, Morrison felt his board come out from under him in the middle of a run.
“I slid backwards into a tree at about 35 miles per hour and hit my shoulder,” he said. “My clavicle [collar bone] was literally exploded. It actually broke through the skin and it severed the main artery that serves my arm.”
Morrison remembered lying at the base of the tree worrying that he had broken his arm. He said he later realized what good news it would have been if that had been only the extent of his problems.
Fortunately for him, he had been skiing with members of the ski patrol who reached him within about two minutes and got him down the mountain. Within 15 to 20 minutes, Morrison was on board the ALERT helicopter and landed six minutes later at Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s emergency room.
“I remember getting wheeled in and everyone greeting me and asking me how I was,” he said.
After a series of imaging, Morrison learned from the physicians that he had sustained life-threatening injuries. His severed artery caused substantial blood loss.
“I lost two-thirds of the blood in my body — four liters, not units, liters — by the time I made it to the hospital,” he said.
The average human body holds five to six liters of blood. Because the hospital maintains standards of a Level III trauma center, the emergency room had immediate access to the blood bank with adequate supplies to replace his loss.
Along with the crushed clavicle, Morrison broke three ribs and his shoulder. He said his scapula was crushed in three places and his spleen was ruptured.
“The worse of my injuries — I broke the brachial plexus nervous system that helps my left arm move and feel,” he said. “Because of that, I lost full function and feeling in my left arm.”
Within 20 minutes, the trauma center had assembled general surgeon Dr. Robin Harrison, vascular surgeon Dr. David Fortenberry and orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Blasingame along with an anesthesiologist for Morrison’s operation.
“The surgery lasted eight hours — at the end of which I came out and they saved my arm,” he said.
Morrison learned later that the surgeons discussed amputating his arm to save his health since it had been without blood for several hours and was turning blue. The conference lasted about 10 minutes.
“At the end, the vascular surgeon stepped forward and said, ‘I’ll save this kid’s arm — I think it’s worth saving,’” he said.
Morrison sounds like a surgeon himself as he describes the intricacy of procedures performed to restore blood to the arm and allow it to swell. He said he knows it would have been easier for the doctors to amputate his arm but they didn’t take that route.
“It’s amazing what they’re capable of,” he said. “I remember hearing about it and thinking, ‘That’s incredible.’”
Morrison spent a week in the hospital where he was as impressed as he was in the emergency room. He said all the nurses treated him as if he were their own child.
“Every single one said, ‘I love what I do,’” he said. “It showed. It made me feel valued as a patient. It made me feel safe being there. That’s the truth.”
Morrison is now in physical therapy to keep his tissue and muscles healthy in anticipation of further surgery in about three months to repair the nerves. He has felt some sensation in the arm since the surgery.
Morrison plans to hit the snowboarding slopes again in the near future.
“I’m very optimistic about this arm being healed,” he said.
Since confronting death, Morrison said his perspective has changed on life. He now savors the simple moments such as shopping or going out to dinner with his wife, Sarah, and infant son Isaiah.
He gives thanks to God and remains in awe of the surgeons and staff at the trauma center at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
“I’m so grateful my little boy has a daddy,” Morrison said. “I’m so grateful my wife has a husband.”
Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.