At George Washington University Hospital in D.C., former trauma patients came together on Wednesday with the first responders, doctors, nurses and others who played a role in their recoveries to tell the miraculous stories of survival and emotional reunions.
It was part of the annual Trauma Survivor’s Day event, during which six individuals — some wounded in shootings, others struck by cars — shared their stories and gave their thanks to those who helped them on the road to recovery.
Among the survivors was James Rafferty, a college student who was struck by a car while walking to class.
“Shortly after arriving to George Washington, we noted that he had a broken skull and was bleeding inside his skull, around his brain,” said Dr. Babak Sarani, director of trauma and acute care surgery at GW Hospital.
Rafferty said he thought immediately after the collision that he came away mostly unharmed. But when first responder Michaela Stark and her partner Nikolai Ferreira arrived, they knew something more was going on.
“I don’t think he really understood how serious we thought it was,” Stark said.
Rafferty said once doctors told him what was going on inside his body, he became alarmed: “I asked for a Catholic priest to come for rites and prayers, because I was pretty concerned.”
He would later have surgery and spend four days in the hospital. Left untreated, the brain bleed could have taken his life.
“This was an amazing recovery (and) recovery discharge time. For that, I am extremely grateful,” he said.
As Rafferty caught up with the two first responders, Ferreira said this reunion ranked up there among the highlights of his career.
“I believe one of the most significant and impactful things to date is basically our patient and our newfound friend,” Ferreira said.
‘I’ve been wanting to thank them since I opened my eyes’
Another survivor, Brandon Davis, came to D.C. in September of 2023 to see if he was a match for a friend who needed a kidney transplant. While he was at a 7-Eleven in Northwest, he was shot multiple times.
“I thought everything was fine,” he recalled after the shooting.
But it wasn’t. He was rushed to the hospital, receiving a blood transfusion on the way, as part of the D.C. Fire and EMS Whole Blood Program that recently launched.
“I remember being in the hospital bed, and I remember talking to one of the doctors. It was a woman, and I remember I was asking her to move. I threw up … and I don’t remember (anything) until October,” Davis said.
The bullets hit one of his kidneys, his pancreas and his intestines.
Dr. Stephanie Streit, one of his trauma doctors, said she first saw him in the ICU and thought that, due to the multiple surgeries he had gone through, he may not survive.
But Davis beat the odds and was able to than the many people who played a role in saving him on Wednesday.
“You were my light, even when I wanted to give up, when I wanted to be grouchy, you wouldn’t let me,” Davis told the room, which included the doctors, nurses and first responders who helped him.
Streit said it’s moments like this that keep doctors like her going each day.
“It is very emotionally burdensome to continue to witness the worst day of other people’s lives over and over and over again, so to be able to share in some of the joy and to soak up the resilience, there’s no substitute for that,” she said.
For Anthony Chappelle, who was also wounded in a shooting in the District, the opportunity to share his gratitude to those who helped save his life was a special one.
“I’ve been wanting to thank them since I opened my eyes,” he said.
Chappelle got a chance to catch up with Emergency Medical Services Capt. Derek McMahan, the man who Chappelle posed the question, “Am I going to die?” to on the night he was shot.
“He gave me big confidence that I wasn’t gonna die,” Chapelle said.
McMahan said he was also glad to see Chapelle after his recovery: “We very rarely get to see the outcome. It’s pretty amazing that all these people have been brought together.”
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