Positivity: ‘Miracle’ survivor reunited with rescuers
Mar. 15, 2007 04:17 PM
She beat the odds last year by surviving a heart injury that is almost always fatal.
Yet Laura Graff, a 24-year-old Glendale woman, was very much alive Thursday as she greeted rescuers and thanked them for saving her life.
“I’m in constant pain, but it’s great to be here,” she said.
advertisementDr. Chris Salvino, a trauma surgeon at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital, said Graff received excellent emergency-medical care before and during her hospital stay.
“Overall, the reason she is here is because it was a miracle,” Salvina told Graff and well-wishers who gathered at a Glendale fire station, 9658 N. 59th Ave., not far from a crash scene where Graff was struck by a hit-and-run motorist.
In fact, her heart stopped beating on her way to the hospital, said Elio Pompa, a deputy Glendale fire chief.
Pompa described Graff’s ordeal as an “incredible story of survival,” made possible by firefighters, ambulance workers and medical-care providers who rushed to her aid.
Mark Burdick, the Glendale fire chief, agreed, saying things came together to spare her life.
The crash occurred Sept. 23 when Graff was struck near 59th and Peoria avenues while out riding her motorcycle.
She suffered multiple facial, pelvic and other injuries, including a torn aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to all organs.
Salvino, the trauma surgeon, said the injury is fatal in all but one or two percent of cases, so Graff really beat the odds.
Graff now walks with a cane because of lingering hip problems from a broken pelvis.
