Neurosurgeon reflects on time in the media spotlight
By Anna Nguyen
Independent Journalist
For G. Michael Lemole Jr., M.D., it’s simply his job to save the lives of patients who have suffered from life-threatening traumatic injuries.
Lemole spoke to health journalists at AHCJ’s annual conference.
Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Arizona Department of Surgery and University Medical Center, found himself in the national spotlight after he performed brain surgery on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she sustained a gunshot wound to the head in Tucson on Jan. 8.
As the keynote speaker at Health Journalism 2011, he retraced the treatment of the congresswoman earlier this year and his experience working with the media.
“Everyone made a big deal of what we did, but it’s what we do everyday … This is academic medicine at its best,” Lemole said. His hospital is designated by the American College of Surgeons as being equipped to provide the highest level of surgical care to trauma patients. “The real focus of the entire event is the congresswoman.”
Lemole and surgical team performed three surgeries on Giffords. On Jan. 8, Lemole and Martin E. Weinand, M.D., removed part of Giffords’ skull to allow her brain to swell, as well as removing dead brain tissue and skull fragments caused by the bullet. On Jan. 15, Lemole repaired her orbital roof fracture through a skull base approach.
“If there is any silver lining in this, it’s that the bullet didn’t take a more traumatic trajectory,” he said.
The last surgery that Giffords received was a ventriculostomy, which measured intracranial pressure and drained fluid in the brain. He supervised the congresswoman’s care until she was released to a Houston rehabilitation hospital on Jan. 21.
During this time, Lemole and others committed to making themselves available to the media. “We strategized with ourselves, administrators, and with the family. The family asked us to get the correct information out,” he said.
Many doctors are reluctant to speak to the media because they are trained to judge and be judged by objective criteria. With media interactions, doctors are not in control as they are in our operating rooms and intensive care units, Lemole said. During the coverage, he found blog postings involving his parents and comparing his looks to Dan Aykroyd.
Overall, Lemole considered the experience “as positive as it could have been in this terrible event.”
“It’s important to get the story right and give some positive feedback to the media. It was a healthy interaction and respectful of both parties,” Lemole said after the speech.
Conference attendees found the opportunity to hear from Lemole helpful in thinking about their own reporting.
“It’s always good to hear from the other side. We’re always asking the questions and don’t usually get a chance to hear how they viewed us,” said Stephanie Nano, assistant health and science editor for The Associated Press in New York.
Daniel J. DeNoon, a senior medical writer for WebMD, said that this is an ongoing story that journalists will be writing more about. “I really appreciated that he went into details of the operation. It’s extremely timely and informational.”
Anna Nguyen is an independent journalist based in Philadelphia.
GAO evaluates youth concussion databases
Filed under: Health data, Hot Health Headline, Public records, Studies
In a recent report, the Goverment Accountability Office reviewed national efforts to track concussions in youth sports (highlights). The report evaluates local and national laws designed to keep young athletes safe, but the most immediately useful component may be the identification and evaluation of three incomplete national databases now being maintained.
High School Reporting Information Online database
Provides national estimates of occurrence of concussion, it covers only 20 sports for high schools with certified athletic trainers. It may underestimate occurrence because some athletes may be reluctant to report symptoms of a possible concussion to avoid being removed from a game.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System
Provides national estimates only on concussions treated in an emergency room.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research database
Provides information only on cases of concussion with serious complications and cannot provide national estimates of the occurrence of all concussions.
Related
- Last week, the House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine the prevalence of concussions among high school athletes and how the injury can impact academic achievement.
- Previous coverage of concussions
House holds hearing on brain injuries in NFL
The House of Representatives is holding a hearing on “Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries” that is being webcast on C-SPAN.org.
The witness list includes NFL commissioner Roger S. Goodell as well as the director of the players association, team executives, doctors, neurologists, retired players, families of former players and safety advocates.
Related
The New York Times: NFL Data Reinforces Dementia Links
‘Playing through’ concussions is damaging
HDNet’s Dan Rather reported on second-impact syndrome (see transcript here), the “concussion on top of a concussion” he said killed five football players last year. Some athletes may take a few days to heal from a concussion, others may take a few months. If an athlete returns to the field before his or her concussion is healed, Rather reported, the potential for further brain damage is greatly increased.
The report features Zackery Lystedt, a teen who suffered brain injuries in a football game in 2006. Tom Wyrwich of The Seattle Times also reported on Lystedt in his article about second-impact syndrome in November.
Rather reports that a just-released study by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio found that 41 percent of high school athletes return to play too soon.
Related
- Football players hide concussions; increasing risk of injury, death
- High school players at risk of ’second-impact syndrome’
- NFL’s concussions expert sells equipment to league
- Tip Sheet: Concussions in young athletes
- Link: Sports Concussion Institute
- Link: University of Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Concussion Program
Report exposes failures of Army mental health care
This week on Salon.com, Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna are posting the results of their investigation into climbing “preventable death” rates among American soldiers. The reporters focused on the cases of soldiers in Ft. Collins, Colo., but also included the national implications of their findings. In January, they report, the army suspects more soldiers killed themselves than died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Their findings are being published in a series called Coming Home:
“Salon put together a sample of 25 suicides, prescription overdoses and murders among soldiers at Colorado’s Fort Carson since 2004. Intensive study of 10 of those cases exposed a pattern of preventable deaths, meaning a suicide or murder might have been avoided if the Army had better handled the predictable, well-known symptoms of a malady rampant among combat veterans: combat-related stress and brain injuries.”
According to Benjamin and de Yoanna, many, if not all, of the deaths were preventable. They point to systemic problems with the military culture and the military standard of medical and psychological care as the root cause. The reporters said the Army’s mental health system had failed the soldiers, many of whom had returned from Iraq and suffered classic symptoms of chronic PTSD.
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- Apply for fellowships to attend Health Journalism 2012
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- Tips for print, online journalists to embrace broadcast opportunities
- Numbers reveal how often, or how rarely, states check doctors’ disciplinary records
- How I did it: Falsified charts in nursing homes linked to patient care
- Access Denied: Looking at a lack of health care availability
- Transparency & medical errors: Public reporting of patient harm is a potent force
