Traveling

My wife and I were traveling to Hawaii and had a connection in Phoenix. While walking to the connection gate, I stumbled with arms and hands full unable to catch my fall. My left eye was slammed into the concourse floor in such a way and force that it ruptured my left eye globe. I had received a cornea transplant 43 years earlier making my eye vulnerable to such an incident. The day was a Sunday and the time was approximately 8pm in Phoenix, 11pm in Florida. My wife called Nadine, nurse/assistant for Dr. Merit Gadallah and she answered at that time and day. She had my wife take pictures and send to her. She conferred with Dr. G and called back telling my wife to not let me on a plane and to make sure EMT's knew of my eye history. She indicated she would begin calling ophthalmologist in the area for emergency treatment. We did not really know the extent of my injury and I had already rejected treatment from the EMT team. She called back indicating due to the time night that I should go to the ER and she had an appointment the following Monday with a local ophthalmologist. She and Dr. G did all of this while awaiting the return of the EMT team to arrive. They transported me to the ER in Phoenix where emergency surgery was done to enclose the hole in my eye. i later was told that I had blown out the prior 43 year old cornea transplant (while still attached, however) along with a portion of my iris and also my lens (kind of a self inflicted cataract surgery without the replacement lens). The repair surgery was successful but I was told to be sure to follow up with my ophthalmologist once released and back home. The following day Nadine contacted us to see how things were progressing. After discussion, it was determined to cancel my appointment in Phoenix she had set up for me. Later she called back to inform us of what we should do upon our return to Naples. She indicated that she was unable to obtain an appointment for me upon my return at the local Naples Bascom Palmer Clinic but learned that if we went to the Bascom Palmer Emergency Clinic in Miami, they would prioritize my condition and I would be seen immediately there with ultimate transfer to Naples for care. All of that went as planned and it was nice to have had all handled by Nadine and Dr. G. I was very thankful that my wife had someone to talk her through each step of the way, especially stopping me from making that connection, as well as the effort to set up/understand next steps as we progressed on the journey from Phoenix back to Florida. It has been a long slow road now 15 months since the accident but all is progressing well and I have faith that full restoration of sight in that eye will be the end result. Having a call taken at 11pm on a Sunday evening is very reassuring as we move forward in this aging process.