In spring 2024, a patient suffered a life-threatening, serious injury to the lower half of his body and was taken to LUKS Lucerne by emergency services. The injuries were so serious that the care team involved could not assume that the patient would survive. But around six months later, the patient was able to leave the LUKS and be transferred to further necessary rehabilitation. Everyone involved in the care team is grateful for the happy outcome and at the same time very proud to have successfully contributed to the patient’s survival in this case with their know-how and remarkable commitment.
Patients with polytrauma are usually initially cared for by the emergency services. After the rescue service has transferred the patient to a central hospital, initial care is provided in the shock room under the direction of the trauma team. “The condition of the patients is often critical; it is often a matter of life and death,” explains Prof. Dr. Frank Beeres, chief physician at the Clinic for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, which manages and coordinates the trauma center. It is therefore important to include all required specialist disciplines on site. The LUKS trauma center is one of 12 Swiss hospitals that is HSM-recognized for the care of seriously injured people.
Only one similar case documented
“During the course of his treatment, this patient endured dozens of operations that have probably never been performed in this combination anywhere in the world,” adds Dr. med. Elmar Fritsche, head of plastic surgery at LUKS Lucerne. “To our knowledge, there is only one other case in the United States in which a similarly serious injury was survived.” Accordingly, with the patient’s consent, the LUKS will also present the case at conferences of the specialist societies for trauma surgery and plastic surgery.
«A heartfelt thank you goes to all the disciplines involved: the emergency services, anesthesia, the center for intensive care medicine, trauma surgery and orthopedics, visceral surgery, urology, ear, nose and throat surgery, plastic surgery and hand surgery, infectious diseases , laboratory medicine, radiology, the nursing staff in the department, physiotherapy, the entire surgical technology team, the psychiatric consultation service of the Lucerne Psychiatry, many hundreds of blood donors and everyone else not mentioned. Without their outstanding achievements and the optimally networked collaboration, this would not have been possible,” says PD Dr. med. Björn-Christian Link, chief physician and clinic director of the Clinic for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery.
Strong center strengthens supply
The specialized around-the-clock care that this patient needed is only possible in hospitals with a center function such as the LUKS Lucerne, which is characterized by strong specialization. This will play an even more important role in the future in increasingly complex medicine. The abundance of teams involved in this patient clearly shows this.
Specialization requires a certain size of the hospital organization with the corresponding professional groups and specialist disciplines as well as a certain treatment volume, which ensures experience and optimally coordinated processes. A strong central hospital with sufficient specialists guarantees care in the specialties, which also benefits local care from regional hospitals. Ultimately, all hospitals in Central Switzerland – including those outside the LUKS Group – are dependent on high-quality center services and the center’s contribution to training, further education and training for the medical professions.
