rEdEFInIng - Stanford Hospital & Clinics

GENERAL SURGERY
ExPERIENCE THAT mAkES THE dIffERENCE
In the emergency room, patients’ chances of survival come down to the
extent of their injuries, the timeliness of their treatment and the degree of
technical expertise their trauma surgeon brings. Stanford Hospital is the
only level 1 Trauma Center between San Francisco and San Jose—and
one of the few in the country to receive a flawless report from the American
College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma. Patients taken to a trauma
center after serious injury have a 20–25 percent greater chance of survival,
and for more than 40 years, the ED at Stanford Hospital has served all
South Peninsula residents.
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WITH MORE THAN 50,000 VISITS EACH YEAR, THE
STANFORD HOSPITAl EMERgENCY DEPARTMENT’S
PATIENT ADMITTINg REPRESENTATIVES, uNIT
SECRETARIES AND VOluNTEERS ARE AlWAYS
ON HAND TO MEET THE COMMuNITY’S NEEDS.
Return to TOC
steady hands
WHEn
minute
EvErY
cOUnTs
“You have to be calm and level-headed in
what by nature is chaos, and time is never
on our side.”
Dr. Rachael Callcut
Surgeon
Trauma/Critical Care
What is it like to work as a general surgeon in the Emergency
Department? “You have to be calm and level-headed in what
by nature is chaos, and time is never on our side,” answers
Dr. Rachael Callcut, trauma surgeon at Stanford Hospital &
Clinics. Jose Hernandez learned just how important taming
that chaos is when he was rushed to Stanford Hospital’s
Emergency Department after a head-on collision on the
Dumbarton Bridge.
Though the healthy 22-year-old never lost consciousness,
Dr. Callcut knew he was in serious danger. His vital signs
were initially not out of the ordinary, but his complaints
of abdominal pain and his pallor suggested that he was
bleeding. As soon as Dr. Callcut moved the wand of a
portable ultrasound across his body, she could pinpoint
the problem—about a third of Jose’s blood had poured
out into his abdomen.
“Time was running out quickly,” says Dr. Callcut. “In another
15 minutes, Jose would have bled to death.” Within five
minutes of arriving at the hospital, Jose was on his way to
surgery, where Dr. Callcut and others quickly sewed up
his most crucial wounds, keeping Jose alive long enough
to treat his less serious injuries.
When Jose came to several days after his surgeries, he took
stock of his life. “laying in bed there,” he says, “I started
appreciating what had happened to me, and believing that
god exists.” Jose has since made a full recovery, and enjoys
spending time with his wife and baby daughter.
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