Home > About Us > News > 2008 News and Newsletters
Teen Survives Crash Despite All Odds
Trauma Center: Real Medicine Saving Lives
For Release: Immediately
Date: February 8, 2008
Contact: Stacy Bingham, 402-481-8689
Lincoln, Neb. - Brittni Shaw is alive today because of unconventional treatments used by the trauma team for the first time ever at the BryanLGH Trauma Center following a car crash.
On Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 15-year-old Brittni was thrown approximately 100 feet from a car that rolled just seven miles from Lincoln on a country road near Pleasant Dale. She was close to death when rescuers found her in a nearby field. When BryanLGH StarCare air ambulance responded, Brittni was given less than a five percent chance to survive because of critical injuries to her brain and spinal cord.
Upon arriving at the BryanLGH West Trauma Center, Brittni was rushed to surgery, where a dedicated trauma team that included Reginald Burton, MD, trauma medical director, and Christopher Kent, MD, neurosurgeon, attempted to relieve the swelling of her brain. Dr. Burton had just returned from a fellowship at the world renowned R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland. When he saw that usual surgical techniques were not working, he made quick decisions to implement these new methods in a last effort to save the teenager's life.
Dr. Kent removed both sides of her skull and placed the bone into her abdomen. "The swelling and trauma to Brittni's brain were so severe that we were unable to leave the operating room," Burton recounts. "We injected a concentrated salt solution to decrease swelling and enabled surgeons to complete the surgery. Once out of surgery, Brittni was placed in a standing position on a tilt table as an additional method to reduce the swelling in her head."
Less than 30 minutes later, Brittni started to have movement in her legs. And three months later, she has made a miraculous recovery - she was not only discharged from the Trauma Center but is walking, talking and laughing.
Her mother, Kari Guthrie believes she will make a 100 percent recovery. She believes in miracles and the power of prayer. And she says she is thankful to the angels at the Trauma Center who did everything they could to save the life of her child.
