“So unbelievably grateful” to HGH trauma team
In May, Lindsay Savoy was airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital’s (HGH) regional trauma centre with multiple life-threatening injuries.
Almost every vertebrae of her spine was fractured. Her collarbone was broken in two places. The base of her neck was fractured where the brain and the spine connect, so she was in a neck brace for four weeks. Her shoulder blade was fractured. Her ribs were fractured. Both lungs collapsed.
Savoy had jumped from her apartment building in an attempt to take her life.
She had an acquired brain injury and liver laceration (tearing) – but within her week-long stay at HGH, all bleeding stopped. Her brain hemorrhage stopped. The internal bleeding from her liver stopped.
Amazingly, she didn’t require any surgery.
“They worked hard to keep me alive,” she says of the HGH trauma team. “By God’s grace I was spared.”
Savoy was discharged when she no longer required critical care from HGH’s trauma team and it was safe for her local hospital to continue to manage her physical injuries and mental health.
Specialized trauma care for complex injuries
“Lindsay’s case reflects the importance of having a system in place that allows patients with multiple complex injuries to be sent in a timely fashion to a specialized regional center,” says Dr. Niv Sne, the trauma doctor on-call that evening. “Level 1 trauma centers such as the Hamilton General Hospital are equipped with the appropriate staff, services and specialized skill set to not only stabilize and diagnose the injuries but treat them as well.”
Savoy is recovering well from a fractured spine, neck, and collarbone. She still feels some numbness and pain in her body but has begun physiotherapy and other treatments.
Mental health care at local hospital
She is managing her depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health concerns through Waterloo’s Canadian Mental Health Association program and programs at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, her local hospital.
Her rehabilitation and recovery will continue.
“Almost losing your life is a lot to process. I’m not only focusing on the physical health, but the mental health as well, so I don’t go over the edge, so to speak, again,” she says.
“I’m so unbelievably grateful to God, my husband, the staff at Hamilton General Hospital and Cambridge Memorial Hospital, and the friends who have blessed and loved us during the hardest season in our lives.”
Regional Trauma Program
Hamilton Health Sciences supports two regional trauma centres: Hamilton General Hospital and McMaster Children’s Hospital.