Washington Terrace » It took a few weeks for it to sink in that he should be dead, David Morris said softly.
A month ago, trauma surgeon Sheila Garvey had her hand pressed to Morris' heart, trying to make sure as much blood as possible would keep flowing into his brain instead of out of the two holes made when his car crashed.
The 55-year-old man is the only patient with blunt-force trauma to his heart -- "he exploded inside," said trauma manager Deanna Wolfe -- to come to Ogden Regional Medical Center and survive to wake up and live his life.
Morris doesn't remember what happened, but somehow the van he was driving on Sept. 28 was totaled on the concrete median on Interstate 15 near Farmington.
After being airlifted to Ogden Regional, a team of nurses and physicians saw that while Morris didn't look so bad on the outside, his vital signs were failing. With blunt-force trauma to his heart, the Clinton man had a zero chance for survival, Wolfe said -- well, a 0.0034 chance.
People shot or stabbed in the heart have a better chance of living, she noted.
Though they would later find out how low his odds to live really were, the trauma team still didn't have much hope for the man before them, who was confused, speaking, struggling, and then went into cardiac arrest.
Morris' heart was no longer pumping; there was too much outside pressure on it because the holes in his heart caused by the accident were filling the sack that envelops the heart with blood -- preventing the organ from beating.
So Garvey cut into Morris' back to open the membrane.
"I figured he had nothing to lose," she said. "He was dead already."
His heart started to beat again, but blood was still quickly pouring out and the team worried there wasn't enough blood sending oxygen to his brain. Even if he survived through surgery, he might never regain consciousness.
Garvey couldn't get a clamp on his aorta to direct blood flow to his brain -- so she pressed her hand into his heart. Later, another nurse would take over that duty until a surgeon could open Morris' chest and repair the two holes: one in his right atrium and the other in his left ventricle.
"I'm just amazed he's alive," said heart and lung surgeon David Affleck, who patched Morris' heart. "I was amazed when he made it to surgery. I was amazed three days after surgery."
Morris is now at the nearby Mt. Ogden Health and Rehabilitation Center. The staff is seeing whether the uninsured Morris will be able to get Medicaid, physical therapist Gordon Doxey said, but "our therapy to him is a gift." Morris continues making slow and steady progress, Doxey said.
Morris still feels like he isn't getting enough air when he speaks. His right shoulder, arm and hand are getting better. The nerves on his right side were crushed in the accident but he can now hold up a glass of water. To drink, he uses his left hand since his right hand shakes too much.
"For the first time, I was able to print my name," Morris told a nurse who helped save him.
He thanked the teams that, through their quickness by air or expertise in the trauma units, helped keep him alive.
And Morris is still surprised by that.
"Why did God -- of all people, with those odds -- I'm the one that stayed alive?" Morris wondered. "There's a reason. I don't know what it is, but I want to find out."
