Severe Trauma Victim: Trip to LVHN ‘Saved My Life’

When the police found Arkadiusz (Eric) Mierzwinski’s vehicle down an embankment and crashed against a tree, the doors were locked and he wasn’t inside. It’s a good thing they searched the area.

The force of the rollover accident had ejected Mierzwinski through the roof of his soft-top vehicle, and he was thrown more than 20 feet. His injuries were severe, including neck and spine fractures, extensive damage to his face, head injuries, broken ribs and a broken collarbone.

He was flown from the scene near his East Stroudsburg home to Lehigh Valley Hospital–Muhlenberg. Looking back, he says that trip saved his life.

“I truly believe that if I had ended up in a different hospital,” Mierzwinski says, “I would not have survived.”

When he arrived at the emergency room, the trauma team was already on alert. As always, the team began its lifesaving work with a focus on the ABCs of trauma – airway, breathing and circulation. Once stabilized, and following a computed tomography (CT) scan to assess internal injuries, Mierzwinski was taken to intensive care for careful monitoring.

He would spend 18 days in the hospital, followed by multiple return trips for surgeries to repair his injuries. After 10 months on a liquid diet, and with titanium plates beneath the skin in his face, two prosthetic jaw hinges were implanted so he could open his mouth and eat normally.

An ear canal reconstruction, after being deaf in one ear for almost a year, restored his hearing and his equilibrium. He also is consulting with eye specialists to help restore normal function in his right eye.

Mierzwinski is regaining his health and returning to his normal life slowly and steadily. Given everything he has been through, the 46-year-old has made a remarkable recovery.

Today, 18 months after the accident, he is back at work in the flu virus lab of a Poconos-area pharmaceutical company. He’s also back to his everyday activities, including those he enjoys most – hanging out with his 16-year-old son Christian and even taking the occasional fishing trip on the boat he keeps at Lake Wallenpaupack.

“The people who treated me, including the trauma team, the surgeons, the nurses and all of the hospital staff, they did an amazing job considering how badly I was hurt,” he says.

“I don’t even have the words to express the gratitude I feel to everyone at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN),” he says. “I got another chance to live life and to be with my son.”

“Eric’s case required input from multiple specialties,” says Kathryn Wheel, MD, one of the trauma surgeons who cared for him. “It’s a good example of how we triage injuries and determine timing for multiple interventions.”

Mierzwinski recalls the relentless positivity of everyone he met at LVHN. “They just had such a positive outlook,” he says. “During those early days after my accident, they kept my mind off my condition now, and kept my focus on what my condition was going to be after I recovered.

“We want to give trauma patients realistic expectations,” Dr. Wheel says, “and let them know that recovery doesn’t end when they leave the hospital. That said, Eric’s positive outlook had a lot to do with his tremendous recovery.”

Mierzwinski has some vivid memories of his time in the hospital, like the intense focus of the staff on his care and healing. “Everyone has a life outside the hospital, but it seemed like when they came to work, they left their lives at the doorstep and made me their life.

“And I don’t think I was the exception in this,” he recalls, looking back. “I think every trauma patient gets that high level of care at Lehigh Valley Hospital.”