Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Celebrating survival
Seventy-five reunite with doctors at Stanford Medical Center

by Sue Dremann

Some came in wheel chairs; others used canes. Most were walking again, glad to be alive.

On Saturday, 75 survivors came to Stanford's Arrillaga Alumni Center for Stanford Medical Center's Third Annual Trauma Survivor Reunion. The event gave the trauma alumni a chance to celebrate their recovery from car accidents, bicycle crashes, falls and freak incidents.

Palo Alto resident Jeanne Ramos wanted to show her doctors proper gratitude. More than a year ago, a bicyclist hit Ramos as she emerged from a bank on El Camino Real. She was clipped in the knees and landed on her head.

A bystander called 911, and Ramos was taken to Stanford's Trauma Center.

"My speech wasn't right. My brain swelled, and doctors cut off a portion of my skull to remove a large clot. . . . After a week, I was transferred to Kaiser Hospital, where my frozen skull was reattached," Ramos, a slender woman with short silver hair, said.

Only foggy moments remain of her accident and stay at Stanford.

"I remembered that in my room, Father Hester -- the chaplain at Stanford -- came in. I remembered the feeling of being surrounded by care and the people I care about. I had a strong feeling of the power of prayer and care," she said during a separate interview.

Ramos said her innate optimism helped.

"I realized quickly it takes patience to get well. I'm old enough to know things take time," she said. "I had a simple goal, like being able to walk by myself. It took me a week, but I was able to go up the stairs with my daughter behind me."

The accident made ultimately her less fearful, she said.

"I will never fear trauma again. I think the body just protects itself. You are really medicated, and your body is in shock, so you are not even there to feel or worry or have pain," Ramos said.

A freak accident contained a silver lining of sorts that saved Ellin Klor's life.

Klor, of Palo Alto, was on her way to a friend's house for a knitting circle when she tripped and fell onto a bag containing her needles. The needle jammed into her sternum and nicked the right ventricle of her heart. A five-inch piece of a wooden No. 13 needle broke off inside her chest.

Doctors had to crack open her chest to remove it -- but the 55-year-old Klor was lucky.

"If it had been a metal one, it would've gone completely through," she said. She spent four days in the hospital, receiving just one stitch in her heart.

But the ordeal wasn't over. Twelve days after the accident, Klor awoke at home in incredible pain. Doctors suspected a pulmonary embolism. Although the pain was caused by the original injury, the radiologist also discovered an enlarged lymph node on her right side.

The diagnosis: breast cancer.

"I got over the trauma of the first thing to treat the second thing. My oncologist told me it was a very silver lining in a very dark cloud," she said.

Klor had a mastectomy. She just finished 12 weeks of chemotherapy, but still faces radiation treatments. It is her second round with breast cancer, having survived a diagnosis in her left breast 12 years ago.

"My friends tell me I'm a really strong person. Who knows? I'll tell you in 10 years, if I'm cured of this cancer," she said.

The Trauma Center receives 2,000 patients annually, and eight percent of victims die, according to Dr. David Spain, the medical director of trauma and critical care. The center treats blunt-trauma injuries, from falls to accidents, and penetrating wounds caused by stabbings and gunshots.

Bay Area residents are served by three trauma centers: Stanford Medical Center, San Francisco General Hospital and Valley Regional Medical Center in San Jose. But go out to the Central Valley or south of San Jose, and the pickings are much slimmer. No trauma centers exist all the way to Santa Barbara, he said.

The critically injured are flown to Stanford from as far away as Chico because of its specialization in thoracic, orthopedic, microvascular and plastic surgeries.

Maria Villanueva, 17, the youngest patient at the reunion, was brought in by helicopter from outlying Soledad.

In a December 2004 auto crash, a drunk driver killed her 49-year-old grandmother and 10-year-old sister. Villanueva sustained bone fractures, damaged lungs and a damaged liver. Her injuries were so severe, she required a specialized ventilator to breathe.

Throughout her 90-day stay at Stanford, Villanueva sensed people were praying for her.

"They told me to keep faith and to keep going," said the high school senior with long wavy hair. "I really made it because I had faith. My whole family came from Soledad every day. . . . I kept going. I said, 'I'm going to get out of here' -- and I did."

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.