A
5200 Harry Hines Blvd.
,
Dallas
,
TX
75235
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- Main Retail Café: Mon - Sun | 6:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
- Starbucks Café: WISH Building | Mon - Fri | 5:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
- Park Market Café: Mon - Fri | 6:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. | 8 p.m. - 4 a.m. | Sat -Sun | 7 p.m. - 4 a.m.
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- Monday - Friday: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
- Monday - Friday: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
- Monday - Friday: 6 a.m. - 11 p.m.
- Saturday: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sunday: Closed
- Holiday hours may be different
Posted: 5/14/2018
May 16 is National Trauma Survivors Day
July 3, 2012 is a day Savannah Fortner will never forget. Not only does she have the scars that remind her of the hot summer day that forever changed her life, each day she wakes up with the pain that has become part of her “new normal.” But while the head-on car crash nearly killed the then 20-year old, it gave her a new outlook on life. Today she is helping others, just like the nurses in Parkland Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department and inpatient trauma unit helped her.
Fortner is speaking out about these life-changing events as part of National Trauma Survivors Day, May 16. Together with staff from Parkland’s Rees-Jones Trauma Center, Fortner will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside of the hospital’s cafeteria, 5200 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, 75235 to call attention to the partnership with the American Trauma Society to connect survivors with programs that support patients and their families throughout the recovery process. The Trauma Survivors Network links survivors and their families with others who have sustained similar injuries, providing support along with resources to enable victims to rebuild their lives.
“Having access to Level I Trauma Centers is critical to the treatment of complex injuries,” said Jorie Klein, RN, Director, Rees-Jones Trauma Center. “The resources offered by the Trauma Survivors Network complement the medical care we offer by providing the skills, confidence and resources patients need to better navigate the road to recovery.”
Driving alone on a two-lane stretch of Highway 78 in Farmersville, Fortner had just reached the top of a hill when she saw a vehicle had crossed the center line and was barreling toward her. She remembers swerving to miss the oncoming car and then waking long enough to see a Farmersville firefighter/paramedic kneeling over her. Nearly a week and a half later she awakened in Parkland’s surgical intensive care unit with multiple internal injuries and broken bones.
“I had a lacerated spleen, broken pelvis, a broken femur – all kinds of injuries. There were stitches galore where the physicians had to zip me up from the various surgeries to repair all the damage,” Fortner said. “The last thing I wanted to do was get up, but I had a great team who worked with me and my first goal in physical therapy was to be able to sit on the side of the bed.”
Those tiny steps became bigger and after about a month in Parkland Fortner was discharged to a rehab facility and then home where she finally got rid of her wheelchair, walker and eventually, her crutches. But it was those last few days in Parkland that really had an impact on Fortner’s future.
“When you’re in your early 20s it’s all about appearances. I remember having an ‘accident’ and crying because I was so embarrassed,” she recalled. “The nurses held me and were so incredibly kind. They told me, ‘if this is the worst thing that happens today then it’s a great day.’ They made me feel so much better and that’s when I knew that I wanted to be able to make just one person feel as good as they made me feel that day. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a Parkland nurse.”
True to her word, Fortner changed her career path from dental to nursing and today is completing her first year as a registered nurse in Parkland’s Emergency Department with her sights set on becoming a trauma nurse in the Rees-Jones Trauma Center.
Despite the pain she endured Fortner says she’s “lucky to have experienced” the crash because it’s made her a better caregiver. “I think a nurse’s greatest strength is empathy,” she said. “I genuinely understand when my patients are in pain because I’ve been there.”
For more information about the Trauma Survivors Network, visit www.traumasurvivorsnetwork.org. For more information on the services provided at Parkland, please visit our website at www.parklandhospital.com