Pikesville Resident Ellen Lightman Pays Tribute to Shock Trauma and First-Responders

This is a Thanksgiving holiday season for which Ellen F. Lightman has much to be grateful.

A Pikesville resident and retired clinical social worker, Lightman was among those in attendance at the 33rd annual Shock Trauma Heroes Celebration on Saturday evening, Nov. 18, at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

The gala was presented by the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Nearly 1,000 people attended, including Gov. Wes Moore and Mayor Brandon Scott.

In June of 2022, Lightman, 77, was struck by a vehicle while walking near her home. She received multiple traumatic injuries, including a fractured spine, ribs and pelvis; collapsed lungs; and bleeding in her brain, lungs and pelvis.

Witnesses said she was thrown onto the hood and roof of the car and then landed in the middle of the intersection at Greenspring and Smith avenues. The driver fled the scene.

“I would not be here had it not been first for the ambulance [crew] and the paramedics who helped me, and then everybody at Shock Trauma led by Dr. [Thomas M.] Scalea,” said Lightman, a Shomrei Emunah congregant. “It’s an extraordinary experience to be here to laud their efforts worldwide. … Life is great, and I am happy.”

Eighty-five trauma professionals and first-responders — including Dr. Scalea, Shock Trauma’s physician-in-chief and distinguished professor of trauma surgery and director of the program in trauma at the University of Maryland School of Medicine — were for their efforts to save the lives of Lightman and Scott D. Spitnale.

A resident of Keedsyville in Washington County, Spitnale sustained massive blood loss and suffered a fractured pelvis, ruptured diaphragm, mangled right leg and spinal cord injury after being thrown 80 feet in a motorcycle crash in June of 2021 in Knoxville, Maryland.

“One of my greatest privileges is having the opportunity to work alongside our extraordinary trauma care teams and our remarkable partners within Maryland’s EMS system,” said Dr. Scalea, who is also chief of critical care services for the 11-hosptial University of Maryland Medical Center. “Every day, these courageous men and women navigate unique and complex challenges. They do so without hesitation and at times, even risking their own health and well-being to save the life of another.”

This year’s celebration theme, “One Maryland, One Shock Trauma,” highlighted the collaboration between Shock Trauma and its emergency medical services partners throughout the state. The annual event also provides philanthropic support to Shock Trauma, which is recognized as one of the world’s leading trauma centers.

Shock Trauma has the highest designation for trauma care in the state as a Primary Adult Resource Center. Doctors there treat nearly 7,000 critically ill and severely injured patients each year with a 95 percent survival rate.

Funds from this year’s event will benefit Shock Trauma’s Violence Prevention Program, which provides trauma-informed care and support to patients who are injured as the result of gun violence and other violent crime. The goal of the program is to reduce the likelihood that patients will be re-hospitalized due to violent injury. About 18 percent of patients admitted to Shock Trauma are victims of violent crime.

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from Shock Trauma and the University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute were honored, along with members of the Baltimore County Fire Department, 911 centers in Baltimore and Washington counties, EMS in Washington and Frederick counties, and the Maryland State Police Aviation Command.

A U.S. Special Forces veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star, Spitnale spent 31 days at Shock Trauma, enduring more than 17 procedures, before being transferred to UM Rehab & Ortho, where he pushed through several weeks of physical therapy. Staff members described him as mentally strong and determined to recover from his injuries, despite extreme pain.

Spitnale continues to receive physical therapy at his home and has been able to take some steps with assistance. “I thank God every day that I wake up, blessed to have landed on the roof of that hospital on that day in June,” he said. “Truly.”

When transported to Shock Trauma, Lightman received blood transfusions, and doctors discovered that in addition to her many injuries, she also had a problem with a heart valve.

“She was not doing very well,” Dr. Scalea said. “Her heart really wasn’t working at all, and her lungs weren’t working, and that’s a bad combination. … Ms. Lightman got here terribly injured, in profound hemorrhagic shock with injuries to her chest, to her pelvis, to her spine and losing blood from many, many areas.”

As a last resort, Lightman was placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, which pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest. “I had some complicated conversations with her family because it was not clear to me that we were going to get her through this,” Dr. Scalea said.

Lightman spent a month at Shock Trauma, where she also underwent open-heart surgery to replace her faulty heart valve. Dr. Jason S. Adams, a physical therapist, said she made “tremendous progress” before being discharged to her home to continue home and outpatient therapy.

“Age is always a factor in deconditioning and recovery through a critical illness like this,” Dr. Adams said. “Luckily, Ellen is somebody who is extremely active. She was always pushing to do more and wanted to just going, keep pushing, to keep getting back to her normal. You knew that she was going to kick this thing in the butt.”

Lightman said that surviving such devastating injuries has caused her to “appreciate the simplest things.”

Said her husband, Dr. Noah Lightman: “Her recovery has been full of miracles, one of which that day they took her to Shock Trauma. They did not take her to the nearest hospital. And that’s what we owe her life to.”

Dr. Scalea said Maryland’s trauma/EMS system is unparalleled. “It is the organization of the system, plus the beautiful, dedicated resource that is the Shock Trauma Center that allows people like this to live,” he said. ”The truth of the matter is that in many places, neither [Lightman or Spitnale] would have lived.”