She was young and she was pregnant

And I was in highschool.  I went to the hospital in Clarion to experience whatever I could whenever I could.  I had run of the place and was greeted with open arms.  One day, I was there when a car accident came in.  Doc Ketner brought the x-rays to show Doc Myers and both of them were pretty upset.  This young pregnant lady had incurred a basilar skull fracture.  Over 50 yrs ago, Clarion was a more than 3 hr drive from Pittsburgh and a basilar skull fracture then, was considered inoperable.  She was unconscious and they put her in a room and told me to call them if she changed anything.  There was no hope if, as most fractures to, bleeding occurs at the fracture site…expands and compresses the spinal cord at the outlet of the skull.  I sat there for hours…praying and hoping, to no avail.  She died about 6 hrs after admission, along with her unborn child.  She was early in the pregnancy and back then, no measures were normally taken to preserve the baby so that mattered little.  It just gave me further incentive to become a surgeon and hopefully prevent some of this mayhem I have been experiencing.  This is the kind of excitement that led me into medicine?  What kind of mentality do I have?! This seems a bit insane to me.  Even now, I can say, I still miss it.  I loved getting that phone call that said, “Come now…we need you!  Click”  I often didn’t know what I was getting into until I walked in the door.