Mansfield, OH,
07
April
2016
|
18:10 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

From associate to patient: a serious head scratcher

Matt Maxwell, RN, OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, doesn’t remember his accident, but he’ll never forget the circumstances that led up to it.

Matt had built a go-kart for his 10-year-old son and decided to upgrade from a 5.5 to 9.5 horsepower engine — something he jokingly refers to as a “no-brainer” given the head injury that would follow.

One fateful day, Matt lost control of the go-kart, went off the road and rolled it three times. Although it was equipped with a roll bar that would safely contain his son,

Matt’s head peered three inches over the bar. He suffered a concussion and 24 fractures, including two in his neck. But Matt reveals that his short stint in a regional hospital outside the OhioHealth network was an equally bumpy ride.

Five hours into his ordeal, he requested to be transferred to Mansfield Hospital, where his recovery would take place and a deeper recognition of quality care would set in.

“My supervisor met me in the Emergency Department and put my mind at ease about my work schedule,” says Matt. “She had already taken me off of the boards and told me to just focus on healing.”

Matt recalls Robert J. Maxwell, MD, FACS, Mansfield Hospital, coming to see him as soon as he arrived.

“He spent 20 minutes at my bedside,” says Matt. “He didn’t have to do that at four in the morning. He could’ve waited until later in the day.”

From the initial evaluation in the Emergency Department by Joseph Bocka, MD — to

Matt’s wrist surgery performed by Michael Viau, MD — to the spine procedure performed by Dionysios Klironomos, MD — Matt says all of the physicians, nurses and associates involved in his care made him feel like a person, not just another patient.

What really hit home for Matt is that nobody treated him differently because he was an associate. Instead, he acknowledged that this is the caliber of compassionate care that surrounds him every day.

“You can be brilliant or talented or knowledgeable, but if you don’t care, you’re not going to be a good clinician,” says Matt. “The care they gave me is now the benchmark I’ll strive to achieve.”