Jeff DeHaven’s childhood was Smalltown, USA come to life, in a neighborhood with a dozen other children, mostly cousins. Dad coached his basketball and baseball teams, and their home was always full of kids and activity and laughter. His mother, a former schoolteacher, wouldn’t have had it any other way. Just across the street was the volunteer fire company, and each time the whistle sounded, Jeff and his friends donned their little fireman hats, complete with lights, and ran to the end the yard.
Is it any wonder, then, that as soon as he was old enough, Jeff became a fireman? Not surprisingly, he soon earned Rookie of the Year honors. While still a teenagerr, following
what could have been a serious automobile accident, Jeff found himself at the receiving end of care. As they strapped him into the ambulance, he remembers thinking, “I’m grateful that I’m going to be okay… and I think I could do this as my career.” He continued to volunteer, helped to deliver his first baby at age 20, and after two years of college, began working on his medic certification.
At just 22 years old, Jeff applied to become a City of Cumberland firefighter, one of nearly 300 applicants. Just 72 passed the exam, and Jeff was offered one of three positions available. He spent the next eighteen months paying his dues, working on the ambulance crew, a challenging stint that honed his clinical skills. Since then, he has cared for literally thousands of individuals and issues. To say he’s seen it all is
not an exaggeration.
One morning in June 2022, Jeff awoke before dawn with chest pain. He thought it was indigestion – after all, he was only 47. But the pain came back the next morning,
and this time it didn’t go away. Once again, the medic became the patient. His first two tests were normal, but a problem showed up in the Emergency Department. Dr. Chris Haas, cardiologist, caught the STL elevation, and immediately ordered a heart catheterization.
Knowing the City’s strict guidelines about the heart health of its employees, Jeff thought he was watching the life he had longed for slip away.
Jeff was quickly scheduled for open heart surgery – the first patient of the day for Dr. Mark Nelson. By the following day, he was able to take small steps in the hallway. His nurse called his mother, who remembers she had never heard anything so sweet as that “Hi, Mom.”
From Dr. Nelson’s thorough explanation, drawn in detail on Jeff’s personal heart pillow – to the nurses who cared for him non-stop, Jeff was extremely pleased with his care. Even the pain was surprisingly less severe than he had anticipated. He calls cardiac rehabilitation “life changing” and credits that extraordinary team with helping him get his strength and confidence back.
Dr. Haas had promised him, even before surgery, that he would do everything he could to get Jeff back to the Cumberland Fire Department. Ultimately, with a heart that worked better than before the surgery, Jeff rejoined his crew in December 2022. The
following month, he was promoted to lieutenant.
took dozens of individual touches at UPMC Western Maryland to get this fireman back to his team. He, in turn, estimates he will touch over 15,000 lives in his career. Every time you hear the fire whistle, it could very well be Jeff and his colleagues, answering the call.
But our story has one more twist... Let’s return to Jeff, in his room in the Cardiovascular Unit, a couple of days post-surgery. As Dr. Nelson was completing his patient visit,
he turned to leave ... and stopped. He looked closely at Jeff’s last name and then over at his parents, focusing on his mother. “Are you Janet DeHaven?” he asked her. “Yes, I am,” she said. And with that, the physician and the mother were transported back in time to Beall Jr Sr High School, in 1974. Mrs. DeHaven was the science teacher, and a young Mark Nelson was her bright 8th grade student. Dr. Nelson recalled his fascination with the detailed drawings of the heart she had presented, even remembering that she showed the heart muscle being slowed down to undergo open heart surgery. He told
her that he had looked for her when she didn’t return to teach the following year, after having her son ... the same son whose heart he had just repaired.
And he told her that perhaps she had inspired him to go into cardiac surgery. A young science teacher sparked an exceptional student to become one of the nation’s best
cardiovascular surgeons, and half a century later, he saved her son’s life. Yes, each man’s life touches so many others.
ความคิดเห็น