Doctors busier than usual as center reopens

Monday, July 15, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

Doctors in the reopened University Medical Center Trauma Center were busy this weekend, tending to 17 injured people, including a 2-year-old who was brought in Sunday after a television set fell on his head.

All survived. A 41-year-old motorcyclist injured in an accident Sunday was in critical condition in the trauma center's intensive care unit today.

"It was busier than a normal weekend," said UMC spokesman Rick Plummer, noting that it also was busy this morning.

"We have a gunshot victim from Lake Mead and victims from a high-speed rollover coming in by helicopters right now."

The 2-year-old boy who suffered head trauma from the TV set was listed in good condition this morning in the children's unit, which is located above the trauma center, which reopened Saturday.

In the days since the July 3 closing of the city's only Level 1 trauma center, critically injured patients were taken to the closest emergency room for medical attention.

The center in the county-operated hospital had shut its doors after private orthopedic surgeons refused to work there unless Nevada lawmakers capped soaring medical malpractice awards.

An accord was reached Friday, when the doctors were made temporary employees of the system, and thus received insurance coverage of state doctors that caps potential malpractice awards awards at $50,000.

The doctors returned to work Saturday.

Among their first patients was a 35-year-old man who survived a 40-foot fall. He currently is in a regular room at the hospital recovering from non-life-threatening injuries, Plummer said.

Also that day a 24-year-old man injured in a Jet Ski accident was brought to the trauma center and treated, Plummer said.