The last thing Santiago Arrieta Gómez, 19, remembers after falling from the eighth floor of the building where he lives “is that I leaned on the edge of the stairs to try to reach the kitchen window, I slipped and fell.” Since February 2, after falling into a vacuum from about 20 meters high and being helped, the young man was in an induced coma for 17 days and woke up. He suffered multiple fractures to his face, hip, legs and lungs, but survived.
The question you may be asking yourself is why did Santiago try to enter his house through the kitchen window and not through the door? At this point it is not important and you will know later.
The truth is that although the chances of surviving that free fall were very slim, today the young man, perhaps thanks to a miracle and medical interventions, has a second chance.
Dr. Luis Alberto Salazar, medical coordinator of the Orthopedic Institute of the International Hospital of Colombia (HIC), explained that Santiago suffered a facial, maxillofacial, pelvic fracture of the open book (separation of the pubic region), femoral neck (bone that connects the leg with the pelvis), and the most complex, a pulmonary thromboembolism (condition in which a blood clot travels to the pulmonary circulation and obstructs it with a potential fatal risk).
After Santiago’s arrival at HIC, multiple tests were performed on him. With the results, a medical team made up of more than 12 specialties began with the interventions, which were seven in total and included: maxillofacial reconstructions, multiple reconstructive procedures in the pelvic region, femoral reconstruction, tracheostomy and an endovascular procedure for the installation of a filter of vena cava due to pulmonary thromboembolism.
While he was in an induced coma, some were performed on him and the rest, Santiago recalled, were when he was already conscious. For him, surviving the fall was undoubtedly a miracle, “I am convinced of that. “I was an incredulous person, far from spirituality, but it seems to me that being alive and with the brain functioning well, there really is no logical explanation.” Furthermore, the young man noted, the miracle could not have been completed without the “excellent medical care I received. At the HIC they made me feel very comfortable, I was not a patient but a person. We joked, we made jokes, it was a very pleasant atmosphere in the midst of the situation.”
The interventions performed had time intervals of at least eight days, since each of the procedures lasted up to six hours.
“These times occur because the blood loss presented in each of the surgical interventions must be replaced and we had all our efforts focused on returning all of the patient’s anatomy and mobility,” indicated Dr. Salazar.
During his stay in the hospital Santiago was accompanied by his mother and father, the latter most of the time. He, the young man acknowledged, became his caretaker and encouraged him to continue. “This allowed me to strengthen my relationship with my father, but in general I began to value my family more than before,” he confessed.
Furthermore, while he was in the hospital and witnessed the treatment he received from the medical staff, Santiago also strengthened his relationship with the career he decided to study and the one he hopes to resume in the second semester of this year. “I liked medicine because of the science part, the surgical part, which is beyond what is human, what it means to save a life. But being a patient and seeing how they treated me made me see things from a more human perspective and that I do not want to be a doctor to cure bodies, but rather I am going to save lives,” he said.
As for the fall, it happened because the young man went out to the supermarket and when he returned he realized that he had not taken out the keys to the apartment. “My only desire at that moment was to enter the house. I didn’t call anyone, I just thought about going in and I saw that the kitchen window was close to the stairs and I thought I could go in through there,” he commented.
That desire, as Santiago said, almost cost him his life, but it also caused him and his family a lot of pain. “We young people live in a hurry, we want everything quickly, immediately, but I learned that patience is a wise virtue. If I had been patient and acted more calmly, I would have saved myself and my family a lot of pain, money, time and stress.” That, the young man added, is a lesson that this episode left him, to which is added the awareness that the most important thing one has is life.
Admiration and dreams
Being in the hospital during his recovery process not only awakened the love that Santiago Arrieta Gómez has for medicine, but also a deep admiration for the medical staff who contributed to save his life. “I feel admiration for the doctors and the other people who treated me, the work was very well done, professional and the truth is I am very grateful,” said the young man.
After leaving the hospital on April 2, Santiago continues his recovery at home with the company of his loved ones. He undergoes daily therapies to regain mobility and, although he currently uses a wheelchair and sometimes uses a walker, he is already taking good steps towards being 100% recovered. The return home was calm and, although he thought that perhaps he would be afraid of heights, that was not the case.
Regarding his dream after the difficult situation he experienced and that he is overcoming today, Santiago expressed that he wants to be a medical professional soon so that his grandmother can see him and serve his family.
