Phillip Sherwood

Chaos in the ER

As soon as the doors to the helicopter opened, I was whisked out so quick and on a gurney just high tailing it into the ER. As soon as I entered, there was a flurry of activity that made my head spin. So many people were asking me questions at the same time, it was hard to know who to try and focus my attention to so I picked the one who looked like they could provide me the most relief and disregard the one who would obviously be looking for ID, proof of insurance, etc. Meanwhile back at the track, the alert roster was activated. Brandy Robertson first had my cell phone and called Melissa Brazelton who was first to arrive at the ER. When she arrived, the patient advocate told her I was getting pix taken. When she was able to get in to see me, I was sick from all the meds I was being given. I was given an intravenous steroid immediately to help stop the spinal cord swelling which I learned later is critical because the swelling causes continued damage to the cord. I don’t remember at what point my helmet, boots, and pants were pulled off but they cut my racing jersey off in record time. I was told later my helmet and Leatt Neckbrace remained with me. After vitals were taken, O2 run, multiple IV lines inserted, I was taken off to Radiology for X-Rays, MRI’s and CT scans. After getting back, a Foley catheter was inserted to collect urine to test. This Foley remained with me all the way to Shepherd. Somewhere there was a mix up of which vertebrae was fractured. Somehow the word got out that it was the C-5 instead of the T-5. My brother Daniel researched on the internet the implications on a C-5 fracture and found this was a scenario for a quadriplegic and the family was very worried now. Relief came when they came and found out that it was my T-5 and that I had full use of my arms and hands. The neurosurgeon who was later to perform the surgeries, Dr. Tao, came in to see me and review all the films and said I would need two surgeries. I don’t ever remember seeing him because he was standing behind me most of the time. At some point a call was put through to my mother for me to talk to her. In past crashes and visits to the ER, I would not call her because I knew the trauma was not too serious and that I would walk out of there ok but this time I knew it was serious. When I explained what I could about my condition, she and my brother David got on the first available flight to Huntsville from Maryland. The ER was a very scary experience because so much is happening and no one was telling me what was happening other than what my body was feeling… or not. I lost all sense of time of day and remember only flashes of images throughout the short stay here. It was only a matter of a short time before I was to begin to realize the seriousness of the injury. I knew the back was broken because I heard the crack of bone and felt the instant numbness in the extremities at the time of impact. It was the accompanying complications I was soon to learn about that began to hit home and turn my world dark. Now I had to figure out how I was going to deal with this life altering injuring and those friends and family members it will now impact possibly indefinitely.