Scott’s Story: Man Survives Farm Trauma Accident

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Cindee Boyd was making lunch for her child when her phone rang. It was a call from her husband, Scott, but the call dropped before she could talk to him. She texted him back a message asking if he needed anything.

“He texts, and it was kind of broken up…it was like ‘QU.6 help 911,’” Cindee says.

Chief Chris Jones, Macochee Joint Ambulance District, said that a call came in for a man caught in a bush hog.

“So, that gets a pretty heavy response on something like that,” Jones says. “We know we’re going to need every hand available.”

Mary McCarthy, MD, FACS, trauma surgeon at Miami Valley Hospital says they’ve seen several patients run over by a bush hog.

“A bush hog is a tool that looks like a lawn mower, only for trees. So it can take out four- or five-inch trees…the damage that it can do to a human being who’s under that deck is extremely severe.”

When Jones arrived at the scene, Cindee was cradling Scott and he was begging for help. Scott had been sliced from the shoulder blade down to his knee. CareFlight arrived just minutes after Chris and the EMS.

 “We knew he was going to have to go somewhere special and fast,” says Jones. “I mean, if he was going to have any chance at all.”

Fighting To Keep a Pulse

“The helicopter had landed, only he was in the ambulance and I kept thinking, ‘Why aren’t they taking him to the helicopter?’” Cindee says. She did not know that Scott’s heart had stopped twice, and EMS were trying to stabilize him before moving him to the helicopter.

Erin Rodgers, RN, CareFlight Air and Mobile Services, says Scott had to have a tube inserted to help him breathe because he was not breathing effectively on his own. He was very pale, and sweating a lot. His blood pressure was very low, and his heart rate was very high; he was in shock. 

“I was working on controlling the bleeding on the outside, and Chane was working on taking care of his airway and keeping him getting enough oxygen to his brain,” Rodgers says.

After Scott was intubated, and they were getting ready to move him, they lost his pulse.

Rodgers and Chane Chalou, RN, CareFlight Air and Mobile Services, had to do CPR in the ambulance. They gave Scott medication to keep his heart going, got his pulse back, and took that available second to move him to the helicopter and transport him to Miami Valley Hospital.

“The area we were in, we normally had Med Flight take them,” says Chris. “We chose CareFlight that day, because we knew the speed of the helicopter and where he was going would be where he needed to be.”

It was a 20-minute flight to Miami Valley Hospital. During the flight, Scott had to be resuscitated three times.

“As we were coming down for a landing with Scott, we actually lost his pulse again,” says Chalou. “So we were coding him as we were landing. We actually coded him doing CPR all the way to the OR. And when we handed off care, he was in full arrest.”

From Helicopter, Direct to Operating Room

“Not many trauma centers have the procedure of direct to operating room,” says Dr. McCarthy. “And, that procedure was critical in saving Scott’s life.”

Miami Valley Hospital is the only Level I Trauma Center in the Dayton area. Level I is the highest level of trauma care in the country.

24 hours a day, seven days a week, Miami Valley Hospital has an operating room that is open and ready to receive critical patients like Scott, says Dr. McCarthy.

“It’s really a whole system that’s been established precisely for this kind of severely injured patient. We couldn’t do this without our team,” she says.

Within three weeks at Miami Valley Hospital, Scott had 13 surgeries and received more than 100 units of blood.

“They were so involved with him,” Cindee says. “It was like he was the only patient in the entire hospital.”

“We take care of the people that are brought to us to return them to their life,” Dr. McCarthy says. “That’s our goal…to return them to the family and return them to the life that they had before we took care of them.”

“Gaining Back Himself”

Scott left Miami Valley Hospital after 22 days.

“I would’ve thought Columbus would have been the town to go to. I didn’t know Dayton had this available,” says Scott. “I don’t think I would’ve survived if I would’ve gone anywhere else but here.”

“Now, he’s out being Scott,” says Jones. “He’s working out, he’s being physically active and he’s gaining back himself.”

Rodgers says that Scott’s is an easy case to talk about. “It went truly so well. And he was so horribly injured. And it just…it was seamless,” she says.

“The human body is a miracle. People are miracles,” says Dr. McCarthy. “It’s not just a physical recovery, it’s emotional and mental…it’s hard work to recover from an injury like this.”

Scott is grateful for all those involved in his care. “The whole trauma team, the doctors, the nurses, everyone. Thank you, you saved my life,” he says. “There’s no doubt about that. I appreciate it so much. I’m going to try not to waste it.”

Cindee feels the same way. “They saved our family. It was…it just would not be the same had we not come here.”

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