Brittni Parks

Home: Murrayville, in Hall County, about 60 miles north of Atlanta

Date of trauma: Oct. 4, 2001

Age at time of trauma: 16

Trauma incident: Brittni was traveling north on Hwy. 60 in Hall County when she was struck head-on by another driver. The airbag of her Toyota 4Runner deployed and Brittni was wearing her seat belt.

Trauma response: Hall County EMS responded to the 911 call. Due to the extent and severity of Brittni’s injuries, they called to launch a helicopter to transport her to Grady Memorial Hospital, a designated Level 1 Trauma Center in Atlanta. After an hour-and-a-half extrication, Brittni was air-lifted to Grady in 18 minutes.

The Grady trauma team – headed by Dr. David Feliciano – immediately led Brittni to surgery, which lasted 14 hours.

Brittni’s injuries included multiple fractures on both the left and right sides of her body, most of which required reconstruction using rods, screws and plates.

The trauma care difference: Grady’s timing and speed were the keys to saving her life. During the first 24 hours, no physician had to be paged or called from home. Grady’s in-house coverage by general surgeons and prompt availability of orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, oral and maxillofacial surgery were all needed.

While most ERs have an emergency medicine physician on duty, they do not have an entire medical team and surgical capability 24 hours a day. It would require valuable time to assemble the appropriate staff, equipment and support in a basic emergency room – time that trauma patients don’t have.

Following surgery, Brittni was in a drug-induced coma for four weeks at Grady. She suffered from respiratory failure requiring prolonged ventilation and a tracheotomy, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pseudomonas sepsis, klebsiella pneumonia, and collapsed lungs requiring chest tubes.

Brittni was subsequently transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville and released within three weeks. After being discharged, Brittni continued physical therapy for six months, progressing from a wheel chair to a walker and then to walking on her own. Brittni has had numerous operations following her accident but is a walking miracle thanks to the EMS team and Grady’s trauma center.

Status: As of September 2008, Brittni is working towards her degree in middle grades education. “I’m healthy and am able to lead a normal life thanks to the trauma care I received from both Hall County EMS and the Grady trauma team,” said Brittni. “It’s unfortunate that every trauma victim in the state isn’t able to receive the same immediate care.”

(Photo: Brittni’s Toyota 4Runner the day after the accident)