“She brought a glimmer of hope...”

Andrew DeVries remembers the impact that a hospitalist's support had on his recovery from a serious motorcycle accident.

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Recorded in Grand Rapids, MI

Credits

Produced by Nadia Reiman.

Facilitated by Jeremy Helton.

Recorded in partnership with Spectrum Health and WGVU.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Andrew DeVries: I had been told I had a broken leg. What I didn't realize was that the leg was not broken, it was shattered. After a number of surgeries it became apparent that I would not be able to keep the leg, and as everybody was making plans for my life without a leg, a young hospitalist came up to me and said 'Andy, what kind of golf ball do you play?'

As I'm thinking about my life without a leg, and it would be removed mid-thigh, talking about golf balls seemed almost idiotic, but I did respond that the kind of golf ball I play was a Titleist Pro V1.

I woke up in the morning and there were flowers around my room and right in the middle of those flowers was a yellow twelve-pack of Titleist Pro V1. That hospitalist, Sarah, had purchased those for me, and Sarah brought me hope. She had helped me stop thinking about how sorry I should feel for myself and she brought a glimmer of hope that there would be something after loss of leg.

I woke up in recovery and I had ten toes. There was a little bit of blood flow and they decided not to take the leg. And when I was to be released, Sarah came in that day to wheel me from my room to the ambulance. And she and I had developed a very close doctor-patient relationship and Sarah shared with me that she had lost her father and she asked me to do her a favor. She said, 'I'd like you to walk me down the aisle.'

And I said 'Sarah, you don't have a boyfriend.'