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Editor’s Note:

Typically, I don’t combine three clinical sites into one story, but in this case- due to the calamity of the times this journey from the West coast to a pair of separate hospitals on the East coast remains a story inextricably intertwined.

Hospital 59 – was in LA and is sort of a blur in terms of the experience.

The trip to California was a spur of the moment decision. Probably not one of the best ones I’ve ever made in my life, but certainly full of adventure and challenges to put it mildly.

Early August I took my show on the road started driving South from Michigan, took 80 across and then barreled down to 70 to go through the Rocky Mountains and ended up in Moab Utah on the second night of this trip. I was to drive 2500 miles in roughly 3 days – so starting out on a Friday morning my clinical arrival time was to beon Monday at 7 AM in Los Angeles, California. That represents a substantial amount of driving in a very short period of time. I loved driving through Colorado, Utah, and then Nevada, past Las Vegas, and into California heading straight down the pike to Los Angeles.

I stayed at the oddest hotel in my life, when I arrived to Los Angeles on Sunday at 8:30 PM. The city is a different animal for sure, and you have to drive like a bat out of hell to get from point A to point B, pretty turbulent flow in my opinion.

My clinical destination is an exceptionally well-known heart program across the world and after two days there I totally understood why. The concept of Mecca was really not palpable to me up until I did my daily commute starting early at 530 or it would only take about 30 minutes, and then spending an hour and 15 minutes fighting traffic to get back home.

The most notable achievement that I personally experienced, was being able to walk an ECMO patient who was awaiting a lung transplant. Did a lot of TAVRs and a couple VA-VV ECMO insertions.

My experience with the ECMOverse is limited not in  terms of numbers, because I certainly have those under my belt. It Is limited based on my perception of positive outcomes that never seem to happen, and poor survival rates that ultimately distorted any sense of hope that I initially had when engaging an ECMO patient.

As it happens once in awhile when being a Locums traveler, there are times when you recognize that you are not suited for the place you are in or the place that you’re in is not suited for you. I’ve learned to cut the cord quickly – so as not to waste my time as well as avoid the torture of uncertain tomorrow’s. This is a nice way of saying that the director of this particular program was incompatible with my perception of what a good working relationship is. That’s all to be said about that.

Back to Michigan…

Since I took the southern route to approach LA, I decided to drive north on the fabulous Pacific Coast Highway and hit the water and eat some great food. I then cut east driving through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and then the doldrums of Nebraska and Iowa. Once east of the Mississippi it was pretty much of a bland and very recognizable drive as I had done it so often before.

I was home for approximately two weeks, and waited for credentialing to come through for the clinical site in Virginia to be followed with a longer-term assignment in Florida. So here’s really where the experiences are blurred because Virginia was to be a weeks assignment, the same particular week that hurricane Ian decided to wreak havoc on the eastern seaboard.

Off toVirginia…

A shout out to my team in Richmond Y’all know who you are, in particular to JR and Stacey, Cierra, Hillary, Sandy, and Kelly! As well to the rest of the heart team that I worked with for the entire week. Basically five valves and an arch, not bad for four days worth of work. Jamie! Thanks for letting me pump instead of backup when Al took a break- that made the difference IMO 🙂

So on Friday morning of that week, with everybody awaiting the storm to hit, I needed to be in Florida by Saturday at 2 o’clock.

Destination: Florida…

That meant driving 750 miles right through the teeth and Eye of the storm as it made landfall in South Carolina. Florida had already been hit, so everything had that surreal end-of-the-world Armageddon type feeling to it.

I basically put my truck in four-wheel-drive and got myself to Georgia on the first leg of the ride. I had the well wishes from the entire crew of the hospital I  had just worked at- buoying  up my spirits. I spent most the drive taking crazy videos and pictures, texting my new account manager for weather updates, and texting my soon to be 18-year-old daughter back at home.

Not quite Raiders of the lost Ark – but it had that feel to it. I had the misfortune of googling the storm only to find out that the hurricane had made landfall in South Carolina- from which I was 25 miles north of and about to drive through. Oh happy day LOL.

The storm had its moments but none of them were terrifying, unless you consider a gust of wind pushing your truck over 3 feet into the other lane at a moments notice – a scary proposition. That probably happened around 10 times.

As I crossed the Florida State line I was to begin my tenure at hospital 61, located on the coast of Florida.

A shout out to Courtney, Andrew, Matt, Elizabeth, Ed, Karly and Morgan for the intense amount of work and the so many things that we were able to accomplish in a very short time. More on this later.

So for now- thank you for reading,

be well,

Pump Strong !