LEBANON, Ohio -- With bad weather and time running out on a young man's life, Bethesda North Hospital staff asked a crew from Lebanon to do a little more than usual, and it likely saved the man's life.
Last Thursday, Lebanon's Station 42 got a call for an industrial accident with a leg injury. Co-workers put a tourniquet on the crushed leg, but the injury was severe.
"Even with the tourniquet applied, the patient still lost a substantial amount of blood," Michael Dulovich of the Lebanon Fire Department said. "This, without rapid intervention, could have rapidly led to death."
First responders got the patient to a trauma center, but physicians determined the man needed care at University of Cincinnati Medical Center's Level I trauma center. They needed air transport, but the helicopter couldn't fly in the weather that day. Another ground transport would take 45 minutes just to reach Bethesda, so they asked the Lebanon team to continue on.
Officials said the "magic window" of one hour was already half through when the patient left Bethesda North. It was one hour and six minutes when the tourniquet was removed. The man's leg wasn't saved, but his life was.
"Lebanon did a fabulous job," Tri-Health trauma program manager Katie Dunigan said. "We all worked together, the squad did a great job getting him to where he could get stabilized, we worked with them to where we could get them down to UC. The ER worked, all of the departments worked well to save this young man's life."
