UVRMC trauma success

PROVO — Despite an ongoing battle with back pain and the inability to raise his right foot at the ankle, Connor Cooper considers himself a lucky man.

It's been nearly four years since a Life Flight helicopter transported Cooper from a messy accident on State Street in Orem to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where he says his life was saved.

UVRMC officials say such stories are becoming more common at the Provo hospital as it nears the end of its quest to be nationally verified as a Level 2 trauma center.

"We're doing a great job, and it's time for us to be recognized for what we do," said Doug Murdock, trauma director for Utah Valley Emergency Physicians. "We don't want to gloat, but we're good."

The hospital expects to meet the strict standards of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) by the end of this year, meaning it officially will be recognized as a provider of definitive, 24-hour care for patients who have been critically injured, much like Cooper was on Aug. 15, 2002.

Then 18, the Orem resident was riding in the front passenger's seat of his friend's car when an oncoming vehicle, driven by a man who had passed out under the influence of prescription drugs, crossed over four lanes of traffic and hit the car head on.

Cooper's injuries were extensive: three fractured vertebrae; a compound fracture to his right femur; breaks to his right tibia and fibula (the two bones of the lower leg); a fracture in his right hip; multiple fractures to the bones in his face; a handful of knocked-out teeth (though they were held in place by his braces); and lacerations on his spleen, liver and kidney.

Each surgery or medical procedure that followed was accompanied by a chance that something could go wrong. The fractured femur posed a risk of blood clotting, and the fragile state of his back made paralysis a threat.

"With the number of injuries I had, to get the amount of positive outcomes I did was pretty good," said Cooper, now 22.

UVRMC personnel say Cooper's survival and recovery is the result of the hospital's commitment in recent years to provide the level of care patients previously could receive only in Salt Lake City.

"It's an asset to the community," said Russell Wilshaw, trauma coordinator at UVRMC. "We want the people in our community to be able to stay here, instead of having to have the hardship to go to Salt Lake."