Trauma Living Proof – Jeremy Durand

Asked what happened, Jeremy Durand apologizes.

“I can’t remember,” he says.

On Sunday, June 13, 2010, Durand was tubing with family and friends on Little River near the Fishville community in Grant Parish.

From what Durand has been told, he can piece together the events.

Jeremy was tubing behind a boat being driven by his dad.

His dad had to turn the boat quickly to avoid a submerged tree top. While the boat managed to avoid the tree, the tube was a different matter. Jeremy was thrown into the tree top.

Witnesses reported Durand spent around a minute face down in the water before the boat could circle back and he could be pulled into it. He was not breathing. His dad started CPR, while someone else called 911.

Durand was transported to Rapides Regional Medical Center, which was in the process of becoming a verified Level II Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. Durand was the first Level I trauma activation for the Rapides Regional Trauma Center. Level I activations are for the most critical patients.

Durand spent four days in a coma and six days in the intensive care unit.

After a total of 12 days at Rapides Regional, Durand was transferred to Touro Rehabilitation Center in New Orleans. He was able to return home to Grant Parish on July 2.

Durand, 22, says he still experiences a few difficulties from his accident, but they haven’t been enough to prevent him from returning to school at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where he is a sophomore majoring in kinesiology. He was back at school two months after his accident.

“I was pretty lucky,” Durand admits. “I was very pleased” with the care at Rapides. “They did an amazing job.”

Trauma Living Proof – Josh Mercer

Josh Mercer was an all-district linebacker for Alexandria Senior High preparing for his senior season.

Another strong season and Mercer would likely be accepting an offer to play in college.

Everything changed during spring drills. Josh went to make a tackle like he had done hundreds of times before. The runner nailed Josh in the side of the head. Josh knew something wasn’t right, as his head hurt following the tackle. Trying to leave the practice field, he collapsed.

At first, it was thought he might have a concussion.

“He had a look in his eyes that he wasn’t right,” ASH football coach Chris Gatlin told The Town Talk. “We knew that something was wrong.”

When his mother, Christine, arrived at the school, she found him lying beneath the stadium’s bleachers while being attended to by coaches. She then rushed him to the nearest hospital. Several examinations and CAT scans showed Josh had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Josh was then transferred to Rapides Regional Medical Center as a Level 2 trauma activation.

After a couple of days in the hospital, Josh was released. The only symptom he was experiencing was a headache.

Later in the week, though, Josh’s condition worsened. He was rushed back to Rapides Regional on May 28 when he began having difficulty speaking and lost the ability to move his right arm and leg.

The next day, he had brain surgery.

A little over a week later, Josh was beginning physical therapy when he had a setback and was placed back in ICU.

This time, when Josh awoke, he got up and walked across the room. His motor skills had returned and his speech had improved. The headaches had also disappeared.

Within a week, Josh was discharged. Although he needed speech therapy, he did not need physical therapy. The speech therapy ended in just six weeks after being scheduled for 12 weeks.

When his senior school year began in August, Josh was back in class at ASH. His playing career over, Josh got a jump on his career plans of being a high school football coach. He was a student assistant as the Trojans reached the state quarterfinals for the first time in school history.

The school retired his jersey and created the Josh Mercer Award, which will be presented annually to a football player based on their attitude, hard work, dedication and commitment to the football program.

Josh will graduate on time in May. He had planned to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, but he changed his mind. He will now attend LSU-Alexandria. That way, he’ll be back on the sidelines this fall as an assistant football coach.

Trauma Living Proof: Curtis Malone

It was the week before Christmas.

And all was not calm in the Malone home in Ball.

Minutes earlier, 3-year-old Curtis Malone had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

“Curtis is 3 and the youngest of four children,” said his mom, Tara Malone. “We have a pond and have always told them, if you see a snake, go the other way.

“My oldest son comes in and says Curtis was bitten by a snake. My daughter, who is 14, carried him in.”

Tara Malone, who is a licensed nurse practioner and nursing professor at LSU Alexandria, quickly examined Curtis.

“Then we took a very quick ride to the hospital,” she said.

Tara Malone brought Curtis to Rapides Regional Medical Center.

Within five minutes he had been taken inside the center. Within 20 minutes, he was receiving two IVs and morphine.

“His foot around the ankle had swelled from the size of a tack to the size of a baseball,” said Tara Malone.

Curtis stayed overnight and was released the next day. His mom praised the quick response of the Trauma Services and Emergency Department team at Rapides Regional.

A few weeks later, Curtis’ dad, Christopher, spotted a water moccasin in nearly the same spot in which Curtis was bitten.

“He took care of that problem,” said Tara Malone.

Malone, who previously worked at Rapides Regional, couldn’t say enough about the treatment and care Curtis received.

“It was such a quick response,” she said. “The people who took care of us didn’t know me.

“I was impressed.”

Trauma Living Proof: Donna Laird

Donna Laird is a survivor.

Just weeks after finishing treatment for breast cancer, Laird dropped her daughter off at school. After returning home, she took to the woods behind her Allen Parish home. After all, it was deer season.

It was November 17, 2010, when Laird climbed into the tripod stand. Normally, she would use a box stand her husband, Lenox, had built. But that stand was a decade old and beginning to show signs of decay.

Around 9 a.m., Laird decided to climb down and walk back to her home as Lenox would be arriving home then. After securing her gun, Laird noticed a strange sensation.
“The trees were passing me,” she said. “It happened fast.”

She had fallen 10 feet. Though she never lost consciousness, Laird couldn’t move.
“I was by myself and had no phone,” Laird said. “All I could do was scream.”
Finally, her dogs heard her pleas and began barking. After about 20 minutes on the ground, her husband found her

Laird crawled onto the 4-wheeler and told Lenox to get her home and onto the couch. When they arrived at the house and Laird couldn’t stand, she crawled into their pickup truck for a trip from their home west of Oberlin to the Oakdale Community Hospital. Following X-rays, she was transferred to Rapides Regional Medical Center and its Trauma Services department.

An MRI showed a compression fracture of her lower back.
Laird spent three days at Rapides Regional. Neurosurgeon M. Lawrence Drerup ruled out surgery and prescribed a back brace.

“It actually healed by wearing the brace and doing what he said,” she said.
This past fall, she was back in the woods, this time in a new box stand.

“I love hunting,” said Laird, who killed three deer this past season. “I’ve hunted for 19 years. It’s a passion of mine.”

Living Proof: Linda White

Linda White knew something was wrong.
White, 68, loves to be doing something. Anything, whether keeping her grandsons, or playing ball.

“I never got tired,” she said. “That’s when I knew something was wrong.”
In 2006, she visited her doctor, but the tests came back negative. The next step was a heart cath to see if it could locate the problem. During the procedure, White felt like she was going to jump off the table.

“It was stopping me from breathing,” she said.
The doctors found an aneurysm. A week later, Dr. T. Mack Granger performed heart surgery.

“He’s wonderful, absolutely marvelous,” she said of Granger, who re-made her aorta.

Four years later, White began experiencing the same symptoms as before. She told her cardiologist, Dr. Wesley Davis, something was not right. A heart cath this time showed her aorta valve had calcified.

“Dr. Granger made me a new valve and I’m still here,” she said.

Today, White continues to be active, volunteering at Peabody Montessori School, where her grandsons attend. She greets pupils twice a week as they arrive at school, goes on school trips and helps in the lunch room.
“She does anything we ask her to do,” said Peabody Principal Rena Linzay.
“Anytime they need me, I’m there,” White said.
And anytime she has a medical need, White said she knows where she will go.
“I love Rapides. This is MY hospital. I’ve been coming here since I was 17,” she said. “I would not go anywhere else.”

Living Proof:Tom Blair

As an auto technician for Porsche for 25 years, Tom Blair spent years working on some of the finest precision machines known to man.

Yet, when his own precision instrument – his heart -- began sending signals something was wrong, Blair proved to be a typical man.

“I ignored it,” he said.

Seven years ago, Blair experienced chest pains while his wife was out of town. After about 20 minutes, the pain went away.

After two weeks of this, Blair finally went to see his family doctor, Michael Screpetis, M.D.

Blair told Dr. Screpetis his symptoms and how he thought they were just in his imagination. The look on Screpetis’ face told Blair otherwise.

The next day, Dr. T. Mack Granger performed a quadruple bypass at Rapides Regional Medical Center. After his recovery, Blair said “it was the best I had felt in years.”

Blair returned to work as the manager of Ralph’s Industrial Electronics in less than four weeks.

When he retired for the second time, his wife, Mary, who was a volunteer at Rapides Regional Medical Center, gave him a couple of weeks to enjoy retirement. Then she handed him his red jacket. Now, he volunteers once a week at Rapides Regional.

Living Proof: Dianne Ryland

Diane Ryland of Effie remembers the date. It was April 15, 2010. She had gone to bed at 10 p.m., but woke up with a strange feeling in her chest.
“I couldn’t go back to sleep,” Ryland said. “One hour later, I started feeling more pressure in my chest.”

Not long after that, Ryland broke out in a cold sweat, started vomiting and began having pain in both arms. At that point, Ryland asked her son to drive her to the Emergency Room at Rapides Regional Medical Center.
Once there, the doctor told Ryland she was in the middle of a massive heart attack. She had a 100 percent blockage, a blockage that only one out of 10 people would survive.

But Ryland did survive – and is a regular at Rapides Regional Medical Center’s Cardiac Rehab program. She’s also no longer a smoker.

“April 15 was the day of my last cigarette,” Ryland said. “I just don’t have a desire for it any more. I feel great. It was a bad thing to have happen, but a lot of good things have come out of it. I quit smoking. I exercise now – which is something I haven’t done in years. But most of all, I pay attention to my body and remind my friends and family to take care of themselves and get their checkups.”

Living Proof: David Voda

David Voda’s symptoms started on a Friday. But it wasn’t until the following Monday that the Alexandria business owner decided to get to the Emergency Room at Rapides Regional Medical Center.

“I had had shortness of breath all weekend, so before I went in to work on Monday, I decided to exercise a little and see what would happen. As soon as I started exercising, the pain started and I knew what was happening.”

Once Voda arrived in the Emergency Room and was settled into a room, he collapsed with a small heart attack.

Four days later, Voda – who was 43 at the time – was scheduled for a double bypass. That was three years ago.

“My mother and father both had bypass surgery – but they were in their 60s when it happened,” Voda said. “I knew I was going to have heart problems, but I didn’t know I was going to have problems this early.”

Today, Voda exercises five days a week, keeps up with his blood pressure and cholesterol and takes an aspirin a day.

“Looking back on it, thank goodness I decided to get help when I did,” Voda said. “Every day, I’m a walking miracle.” 

Living Proof: Fred Jordan

Fred Jordan and his wife Lynn were already doing everything they could to stay healthy.

The Pineville couple, married for just six years, were diligent about eating well and exercising. But when Rapides Regional Medical Center began offering the “Calcium Scoring” test, the couple signed up.

“A friend I knew had the test and discovered he had heart disease,” Jordan said. “I’ve had two brothers have bypass surgery, and I know it runs in families. Even though my other test results were always fine, I wanted to be sure.”

Jordan’s “Calcium Score” was high – a higher score than his cardiologist had seen before. A heart cath two days later showed five blockages.
“From there, they took me straight to surgery,” Jordan said. “I had a double bypass and was home by the next Monday.”

Fred, who had lost his first wife to cancer and Lynn, who had lost her first husband to heart disease and stroke, consider it a miracle.

“The doctor told me that with his blockages, he would have eventually just dropped dead,” Mrs. Jordan said. “That test saved him, as far as I’m concerned. I’m glad we took the time to schedule the test because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without him.”

Now, the Jordans still exercise and eat well, but they also have a little extra peace of mind – and many more years together.

Living Proof: John Johnson

It was the little things that made a difference for 32-year-old John Johnson on March 9, 2010.

Johnson, who had no family history of heart disease, had gone to work as a contract electrician at the Pollock prison, but didn’t feel well.

“He took some Rolaids before he left for work,” said Katee Johnson, John’s wife. “He thought he had indigestion. But later, when his coworkers went to look for him, they found him sweating, slumped over in his truck.”
Here’s where one of those “little things” come into play.

The prison had an automatic external defibrillator on the premises - and a nurse practitioner who knew how to use the AED and administer CPR.  If Johnson had gone to an alternate work site as planned, there would have been no nurse practitioner or an AED.

“They shocked him five times with the AED and revived him enough to give him an aspirin and get him on the ambulance gurney,” Mrs. Johnson explained.

Then, his boss insisted the ambulance take Johnson to Rapides Regional Medical Center. There, the cardiologist met them in the emergency room and had Johnson sent straight to an open cath lab.

“If that doctor hadn’t been on duty. If the ambulance had gone to another hospital. If the cath lab hadn’t been open – there were so many things that just fell into place that day,” Mrs. Johnson said.

The cardiologist found a 98 percent blockage in a major artery and opened it with a stent– but once the blockage was open, no one was sure if Johnson, who had gone approximately two hours without oxygen, would wake up.

“He woke up three days later,” said Mrs. Johnson, who was 9-weeks pregnant at the time. “It was the longest three days of my life.”

A second heart attack five days later meant a second stent and a double bypass. Still, Johnson was back at work eight weeks after surgery. Today, John and Katee are parents to 4-year-old Lily Mae and 4-month-old Mary Ellen – and John has made a change in his eating and exercise habits.

“He doesn’t remember any of it,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And for a while, he lived like nothing had happened. But that scar on his chest is always a reminder.”

Living Proof: Pam Broadwell

Looking back, Pam Broadwell realizes that she’d had symptoms for two weeks before ever deciding to visit the Emergency Room.

And even then, she probably wouldn’t have gone if it hadn’t been for her best friend who insisted on driving her to Rapides Regional Medical Center.

“I told my friend I wasn’t feeling well, that I had some pain in my chest and a little shortness of breath,” Broadwell said. “She told me to take an aspirin and to get ready because she was coming over to drive me.”

When her friend arrived, Broadwell was putting on lipstick.

“I think women are just so busy – you don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” Broadwell said. “My cholesterol was good. My blood pressure was good. I was even working out three days a week.”

Until that point, the only “sign” that anything could be wrong was the fact that since her retirement, she had been feeling low on energy and had started sleeping a lot.

“When I went to the emergency room, I had over 90 percent blockage of my main coronary artery,” Broadwell said. “If I had not sought help, I would be dead. The staff told me ‘We don’t see many women leave the hospital when they come in with a blockage like yours.’”

Doctors placed one stent in Broadwell’s artery – and placed a second stent several months later when she began having symptoms from a 99 percent blockage.

“Cardiac rehab was perfect for me,” Broadwell said. “After my first stent, I was afraid to exercise, afraid that I would have another episode. Knowing that there are nurses there monitoring me during my entire workout made a huge difference. It gave me the confidence I needed to keep exercising.”

Living Proof: Sheila Batey

Sheila Batey was at work when the pain started. It began in her right shoulder and became pro-gressively worse as the day went on.

“I’m thinking it’s a pinched nerve the whole time,” said the 45-year-old mother of two. “A heart attack never entered my mind.”

But when coworkers called Batey’s husband – a local firefighter – he recognized the symptoms immediately and asked them to take his wife to the Emergency Room at Rapides Regional Medical Center.

And by the time she arrived, Batey’s husband was there waiting.

“Once I got to the emergency room and they took me back to a room, I collapsed. I had 70 percent blockage,” Batey said. 

Doctors were able to treat Batey’s blockages with medication, diet and exercise –but the experience was a wake-up call.

“My grandfather died of a massive heart attack,” Batey said. “I just never thought I would have a heart attack. I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t have any symptoms. It was just the normal stress of raising kids, having a job and getting ready for Christmas.”

Now, Batey exercises more, tries to stress less – and makes sure her entire family is eating better.

“I’m the cook of the house, so whatever I’m eating, they’re eating, too,” Batey said. “They’re going to have to get healthier, too!”