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Nathan and Merideth McDonald, both 29, haven't yet told their 16-month-old daughter, Lija Brigham McDonald, the story behind her middle name.
On April 17, 2009, Nathan, an Air Force reservist who was working as a personal trainer, had been riding his motorcycle when a garbage truck pulled in front of him. He couldn't avoid the truck and slammed into it between 35 and 40 miles per hour.
"It happened so fast," said Merideth, who worked at Arbour Hospital at the time. She had been on the phone with her husband just 15 minutes before the accident, excitedly planning for the Red Sox game they were going to the next day. "I got the phone call that he was being transported via MedFlight, and I think I started hyperventilating."
When he arrived at BWH, Nathan was not expected to live. In addition to massive blood loss and a pelvic fracture, Nathan had also suffered a head injury.
"He was one of the sickest patients I had ever taken care of," said Susanne Bloom, RN, who cared for Nathan in the Burn and Trauma ICU.
Nathan's care team began performing blood transfusions right away. The first night alone, he received approximately 60 pints of blood, an astounding amount. The average adult has about 10 to 12 pints of blood in his or her body.
"I was sitting in the waiting room surrounded by family and friends, and I thought, ‘My gosh, we need to give blood,'" Merideth said. "If Nate needs this much blood, all of these other people need it, too."
So one by one, Nathan's family and friends visited the Blood Donor Center while they were waiting. Merideth made a commitment to become a lifelong blood donor.
While at BWH, Nathan received a total of 30 blood transfusions. In the operating room, James Watkins, MD, associate surgeon, and Mark Vrahas, MD, chief of Partners Orthopedic Trauma Services, were able to stop Nathan's bleeding and stabilize his condition, so they could perform pelvic surgery and treat his other injuries.
"It was a whole army of people taking care of Nathan," said Watkins. "Young, healthy people tend to do better, and he was robust to begin with, which certainly helped. It was a very memorable case."
After surgery, Nathan began his recovery process, both in the ICU and at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which was expected to take one year but took only three months.
"It was one thing after another, but he kept fighting, and he kept getting better, earning himself the nicknames ‘Nate the Beast McDonald' and ‘The Miracle Patient on 7D,' " Merideth said. "Nate was not expected to live, but he lived. He was not expected to wake up, or if he did, he was not expected to be beyond a vegetative state."
Nathan was also not expected to be able to have children due to his pelvic injuries. But less than one year after his discharge from Spaulding, he and Merideth discovered they were expecting their first child. They named her Lija, a combination of their mothers' first names, and honored the Brigham with her middle name.
"I was blown away," said Nathan, of first hearing that his wife was pregnant. "It was definitely a miracle and a gift from God. Lija provides motivation for me in so many aspects of my life."
These days, Nathan, Merideth and Lija live in Florida, where Nathan is studying mechanics at Universal Technical Institute in Orlando. While visiting Boston in early June, Merideth and Lija along with Merideth's parents, who live in Maine, visited the BWH Blood Donor Center to donate.
"Anytime we are in the area, we give blood at the Brigham," said Merideth. "I can't even put into words what the hospital means to us. All of the Brigham became our family."