Celebration of a lifesaver

Art Nadler

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

David Austin was traveling more than 120 mph over Red Rock Canyon's Scenic Loop when he missed a turn and crashed his 600 cc Honda Hurricane motorcycle in the desert.

Lying unconscious with a broken left collar bone, three smashed ribs and a punctured lung, his diagnosis didn't look good.

A buddy, James Hawkins who was riding next to him, saw his lights go off the road. He doubled back. Upon discovering the accident, he raced his own motorcycle to the nearest pay phone.

A Flight for Life helicopter was on the scene in minutes. It airlifted Austin to University Medical Center, the home of Southern Nevada's only trauma center.

The 19-year-old's life had just entered the "golden hour" -- a period where time and urgency is of the essence. One mistake, one hesitation and Austin would be dead.

Dr. Darren Soong was the trauma surgeon on duty when Austin arrived.

"If David hadn't had a team waiting for him, we would have had to call people in," Soong said Monday at a UMC luncheon to honor National Trauma Awareness Month. "That hour is the difference between survival and dying."

Trauma doctors and nurses worked in unison with paramedics. They stabilized Austin at the accident scene and radioed his conditions to awaiting hospital personnel.

"The motions they go through are wonderful," said Shelia Austin, David's mother. "They just know exactly what to do. He was in a coma for 21 days and in the hospital for 40 days afterwards."

Austin's survival wasn't the only case celebrated Monday.

Phoenix Ladd, 20, was riding as a passenger in a car last August on her way to Brian Head, Utah, when the driver fell asleep and they crashed. She sustained severe head and facial injuries and internal injuries, including a broken pelvis. When she arrived at UMC, her mother said she wouldn't have recognized her if it wasn't for a tattoo on her ankle.

"She was in a coma for a week," Barbara Ladd said, looking at her daughter with a mother's eyes. "They saved her. They gave me a chance to have her with me today."

Several former trauma patients, their doctors and the nurses who routinely work the trauma unit all turned out for the special occasion Monday. Also honored was Dr. John Batdorf, the physician considered the founding father of trauma medicine in Clark County.

In his honor, a plaque and color photograph will be displayed in the resuscitation area of the trauma center.

Fighting back tears and speaking in a quivering voice, Laurie Nemes recalled the day she was involved in a motor vehicle accident on July 24, 1996.

"Dr. Batdorf, I want to thank you because if it wasn't for you, I don't know where I'd be. "I'm a physical therapist. I used to work here."

Nemes could say no more. She became too emotional to speak.

Dr. Otto Ravenholt, Clark County's chief health officer, had nothing but praise for his colleague.

"Among the really sturdy physicians who have played a strong role, John numbers first among them," Ravenholt said. "John always provides steady leadership. ... An important phase of UMC is really reflected in what he did for it."

Besides starting Emergency Medical Services throughout the county, where law enforcement personnel and medical caregivers learned trauma techniques, Batdorf also started the hospital's burn unit in 1968. It was the 24th unit in the country at the time.