Mobile Team Of Doctors Perform Emergency Amputations
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Minutes after a Dallas Food Plant employee found himself trapped inside a flour mixer last week, a team of doctors was prepared to perform surgery on the spot if necessary.
Health officials feared that saving Freddy Bermudez's life would mean amputating his arm at the scene.
"We were sent out there because DFR thought he was going to need an amputation at the shoulder to extricate him from the scene," said Dr. Alexander Eastman, an ER surgeon at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
It would've been a rare scene of life saving; this mobile group of four doctors has only been called twice this year.
Parkland Trauma Specialist Brian Williams joined Eastman as part of the medical team sent to the B.C. Williams Bakery Plant.
"He was pinned face against the wall with the blade against his back," Williams said.
They joined Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics and Urban Search and Rescue specialists. The surgical team wasn't needed –– Bermudez was rescued without needing to take his arm.
He remains in Intensive Care Monday.
Although the amputation team wasn't needed, they say they're at the ready for a larger reason.
"A surgical procedure in the field is not something that happens every day," Eastman said. "There are some doctors who are interested in making this community a safer, better place to live. "
