Akron Life December 2022

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[ Publisher | Colin Baker | cbaker@bakermediagroup.com ]

Life Saver

Learning about our hospitals firsthand inspires gratitude.

into the floor, the saw jumped away from me. To paraphrase the band the Clash with a little artistic license, “I fought the saw, and the saw won.” Both of my legs were hit, one on the thigh and the other on the calf. I stood up and thought, I better get myself to the urgent care or something , but it was worse than I thought. My phone was in my car about 50 feet away. I hobbled to my phone and thought I could drive, but after looking at my leg, I called 911. I didn’t know the address where I was and was feeling lightheaded. I stayed on the phone and was in shock. They must have used my cellphone location to find me, because within 5 minutes, an ambulance was there. They loaded me up, and I was on my way. I called my wife to say I was going to the hospital, and she knew some thing was wrong because I would have never gone to the hospital on my own accord. I was taken right to the emergency department and was stitched up. These are the moments that everything changes — I could see it was close to an artery, and what I was doing was care less and could have been much worse. I feel very blessed to have had such urgent and quality care. It is easy to take for granted what resources in medicine we have around us until we need them. You can learn more about elite physicians in The 330 on pg. 38. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for those who save lives and saved mine. Going through an experience like that is eye-opening, and I think I will just hire someone to replace the trailer floor. I’m done with that project.

Our health care issues have been a staple at Akron Life for %$ years. They have been a way to connect with our readers and showcase the best doctors in our area. We have had many changes in our local health care industry, including new technologies and treatments that can help people live healthier. Over the summer, I unfortunately visited some of our finest local providers. As a kid, I was what you would call “accident prone.” I usually had a yearly visit for stitches or some other mishap. As I got older, this became less and less frequent, and I was moving closer to a life of safety. But the truth is, I probably wasn’t all that safe; rather, I was lucky. This all started when I decided I was going to replace some flooring in a travel trailer that I purchased from my brother. I was thinking, Wouldn’t it be great to take my 2-year-old camping and get out and enjoy the outdoors? I consider myself com petent at fixing things and thought, This shouldn’t be too hard . I needed a saw that could cut around tight corners and a circular saw wouldn’t work. So, I put a saw blade on an angle grinder and thought it would do the trick. It was a Saturday morning, and I had a few hours to myself, so I decided I would head over to a storage facility where the trailer was parked and work on it. I immediately broke many safety rules, so it wasn’t off to a good start. After the first cut

[ Publisher Colin Baker is a retired racing driver and gearhead. ] Comments? Email them to Kelly Petryszyn [kpetryszyn@bakermediagroup.com].

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