11/16/2022
On a beautiful spring morning, Robert Murphy was riding his motorcycle on the Angeles Crest Highway, which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains. His memories of what came next are spotty. âSuddenly, I was on my back,â Robert recalls. âI heard concerned voices and the sound of a helicopter in the distance.â
Robert had collided with an automobile and was lying precariously on the side of the mountain, seriously injured. Thankfully, Huntington Hospitalâs emergency department supervisor Janet Henderson, RN, was on patrol with the Montrose Search and Rescue Team â and was not far from the scene of the accident. âIâm so lucky the team was only three minutes away when they got the call,â Robert says. âAnother few minutes, and I might not be here today.â
When the team arrived, they found Robertâs left foot mangled. He had broken bones throughout his left leg, pelvis, hip and forearm. A major artery in his thigh was torn, and he had lost a lot of blood. But he was thankfully still alive.
Robert was quickly airlifted by the Los Angeles County Sheriffâs Air Rescue 5 team to Huntington Hospital Trauma Center. He was given a rapid transfusion of blood and sent to the operating room. Huntington-affiliated surgeons Todd Borenstein, MD, and Sanjeev Puri, MD, reattached the part of Robertâs foot that could be saved, straightened the bones in his lower leg and fixed a compound fracture in his femur.
To read more about Robertâs story of recovery, go to: https://bit.ly/3FHQXiF