Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Trauma Team Saves More Than a Life: They Save Limbs Too
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In a story in the Stanford Medicine New Center, we learn that saving a child’s life is often only part of the battle: in many traumas there’s some serious reconstruction needed to save limbs too. The article titled Stanford Trauma Center saves boy’s hand — and life gives the details of one such case.

Erin Digitale writes, “When the emergency call came on the evening of Oct. 19, 2015, doctors on Stanford’s pediatric trauma team realized the case heading their way could hardly be worse. Ten-year-old Elijah Olivas was being helicoptered from central California to Stanford Medicine’s emergency department after being ejected from a moving car during an accident. He had serious head injuries, and his right hand had been severed at the wrist. The team immediately began planning how to save Elijah’s hand — and his life.

“We knew that when Elijah arrived, we’d need to get him to the operating room as quickly as possible but also as safely as possible,” said orthopedic surgeon Garet Comer, MD, one of several-dozen experts from the Level 1-certified pediatric trauma center who cared for Elijah. “Elijah had a potentially life-threatening cranial injury, and we had to ensure that there were no other life-threatening bodily injuries before taking him to the operating room,” said pediatric neurosurgeon Samuel Cheshier, MD, PhD. “It was incredibly important because being thrown from a car could have caused a severe bowel or aortic injury, for instance.”

Any injury to a child can be a serious one. Whether it’s a life-threatening cranial injury or a burn, there are many traumas that lead to the need for pediatric plastic surgery. At the offices of Rex Moulton-Barrett, MD, we can help with a wide variety of surgeries for children including cleft lip and palate repairmacrostomiacongenital limb surgery, and microtia ear reconstruction surgery.

When it comes to your children, you demand a surgeon you can trust and that’s exactly what you’ll get. Rex E. Moulton Barret, M.D. is known and acknowledged throughout the world. He’s board certified by both the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the American Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

If you have questions or concerns, or you simply want to schedule your own consultation, reach out to us today.