Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1079661
t m c » p u l s e | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 9 24 William "Bill" Mileski, M.D., chief of trauma services at UTMB, helped the team stabilize Barnes so that he could be transferred to the operating room for surgery. Described by colleagues as a bear without claws, Mileski can come off as gruff, but if you are in near-irreversible shock from hemorrhaging, you want him in the room. When a body loses as much blood as Barnes' did, it pools whatever reserves it has left and drives that blood to the core—one last-ditch effort to survive. But if organs like the kidneys and liver are deprived of blood for too long, their cells begin to die. When the condition hits a critical point, it is called irreversible shock. The patient will enter kidney failure, liver failure, respiratory failure, or all of the above, and it is almost always fatal. The trauma team at UTMB worked to get Barnes' blood pressure up to a point where blood and oxygen could still reach his brain—if only barely. At 9:21 a.m., they packed up the coolers of blood, steadied the gurney and rushed him to the OR. * * * * * Cibby Moore raced down Interstate 45 toward UTMB in her police cruiser, lights and sirens screaming. Beside her was Barnes' wife, Ashley, at the time a vice principal at Wollam Elementary School, located just three miles east of Santa Fe High. Ashley knew her husband had been shot, but nothing else. Finally, Moore turned to her. "Do you want me to tell you what happened?" Ashley nodded and braced herself. Moore told her that her husband had been shot in the arm. A wave of relief swept over Ashley. "As soon as I heard that I was like, 'OK, we got this. We're in the arm. It's not in the chest. He's alive,'" she later recalled. When the two finally reached UTMB's waiting room, Ashley took note of the swarm of police officers. How nice, she thought. But when she was escorted from the main area to an isolated room nearby, she grew nervous. Why do I have to be in the 'Your-husband's-dead room?' William "Bill" Mileski, M.D., is chief of trauma services at UTMB. Barnes signs a poster at UTMB during a visit in August 2018.