A Medical Miracle: How a Colorado spinal surgeon ended up in the ER

DENVER, Colo. — People trust connected hospitals to assistance them erstwhile they request aesculapian attention. Some of those hospitals are the precise crushed immoderate of the champion doctors get into the aesculapian profession.

That is the lawsuit for Dr. Woosik Chung, who is the manager of Spine Surgery astatine Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center successful Denver, Colorado.

One of the newest spaces wrong their installation is the smartOR. It's wherever Dr. Chung does each of his spinal surgeries.

He's the brains down incorporating immoderate of the newest technologies wrong this space. However, helium didn’t get to wherever helium is by accident.

“Growing up with a dada that was a surgeon and a ma that was an OR nurse, you know, you benignant of instrumentality it for granted, unfortunately," Dr. Chung said.

His communicative starts erstwhile helium was astir 3 years aged and it was a celebratory vacation successful South Korea.

“I retrieve I was playing with my friends. I judge we were playing hide-and-seek. I retrieve hiding down a tractor and I retrieve the motor screen was unfastened oregon it wasn’t there, and determination was the propeller spinning and the instrumentality loop astir that propeller. I retrieve I was sitting connected my tricycle and I was hiding and cipher could travel and find maine and I got bored and I saw the propeller moving astir and I thought I could halt it," Dr. Chung said.

He severed some of his hands. Both were a cleanable cut.

“The adjacent happening I remember— my dada is holding maine and compressing my arms and I heard my ma say, 'I recovered them,' and she was referring to my limbs," Dr. Chung said.

They lived close adjacent the hospital. His begetter had to measurement successful arsenic galore doctors weren't moving due to the fact that it was a holiday.

“Luckily, acknowledgment to my parents, my dada and the powers that be, I healed up and I was capable to commencement utilizing my hands again and I deliberation it took maine a agelong clip to recognize the value of that," Dr. Chung said.

What could person turned into a tragic story, instead, was the opening of a singular career.

“I was funny astir the OR, I was funny astir what my dada did due to the fact that I knew that helium had done my manus country and truthful I deliberation it made maine privation to spell to his infirmary much erstwhile we were surviving successful Malawi and cheque retired what helium was doing," Dr. Chung said. “He was arsenic engaged arsenic ever truthful the lone times I truly saw him were if I visited him astatine the infirmary and past I’d tally astir with him arsenic helium was making his rounds and past I’d benignant of look successful arsenic helium was operating extracurricular of the OR.”

Those times of exploration, combined with his curiosity, gave him intent to articulation the aesculapian field.

“Wow, this is beauteous unsocial and it’s an accidental that doesn’t travel by that often and truthful possibly the champion happening to bash is to effort and usage my hands to assistance idiosyncratic else," Dr. Chung said.

That’s precisely what helium does now. Day-in and day-out, utilizing his ain hands, to alteration others' lives astatine this hospital. His outcome, is not the norm. Limb reattachment is acold from a guarantee.

“I would inactive accidental it’s a rarity. And I would accidental this lone happens successful unsocial circumstances. And I deliberation In my case, convey goodness I was a young kid, convey goodness the wounded itself is what we telephone a cleanable cut, and convey goodness my begetter was capable to instrumentality attraction of maine truthful rapidly close aft the injury," Dr. Chung said.

People would ne'er cognize Dr. Chung's communicative by looking astatine him but knowing it, makes radical admit him arsenic the doc and surgeon helium is.

“Get to cognize your doctor. Get to cognize your nurse. Get to cognize the radical that privation to instrumentality attraction of you due to the fact that we privation to beryllium capable to instrumentality attraction of you, we privation to help," Dr. Chung said. “Helping others, and bash immoderate you can, adjacent if each the likelihood are against you, and arsenic agelong arsenic you look astatine that extremity and you enactment towards it arsenic hard arsenic you can, good sometimes astonishing things tin happen.”