Matthews [walking outside to ambulance bay]: It’s 2:30 in the morning and, as predicted, the knife-and-gun club has started. We have a gunshot wound coming red trauma now.
OK, so this kid’s got a gunshot wound that went over his shoulder blade in the left side and came out of his left arm. He’s got good pulses. Looking at this gunshot wound, this was point blank at this kid – somebody trying to rob him shot him point blank, and he is extremely lucky. He’s got good pulses in that arm. We are going to clean up that arm, we are going to bandage him, and he is going to go home with some pain medications and some dressing changes. I tell you what, God really blesses children and fools, don’t they? So this child is only 16 years old and just very happy for his parents that he was able to survive this. OK, on to the next patient. 
This patient that we are looking at right now is in the Intensive Care Unit and clearly is well resuscitated. Good heart rate, good blood pressure, breathing well, the breathing tube is out, but she is very puffy from all the fluid that she got after operation or during operation, and so what we are planning on doing right now is just watching her conservatively.
OK, this is the patient that we just operated on earlier today by closing his abdomen and placing the drain. He looks excellent – vital signs look perfect. Hopefully he will do OK.
This next patient is in liver failure, or liver insufficiency, and tragically has been in a bad car wreck, and the two really don’t go together well. So we are treating her for confusion and with the delicate balance of medications. So, I do suspect that she’ll eventually be back to her baseline self but just with a lot of TLC and hand holding.
[To a young boy] Hey, young man, how you doin’? You doin’ OK? You feeling all right? How does your tummy feel? Is it feeling the same? It feels better! OK, all right, well your spleen…. OK, mom, we will just watch him here in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, OK? Do you have any questions? Any questions? Any questions for doctor? OK, I’ll see you in the morning. Bye-bye.

At 10:30 a.m., Matthews has “rounded” on the entire Burn Center and coordinated with Drs. Michael Hibbard and Nicholas Harrel. He’s now officially off the clock, and he drives home listening to Spanish-Mediterranean guitars playing “Forever My Love.”

Matthews: I’m going to go home and get some sleep, take a shower, see my wife and maybe see a movie. [Laughs] I want to see a comedy because I don’t want to see any ‘action.’ I see enough action at work and enough violence to last me a lifetime.
Next stop, home.
 

ABOUT THE DOCTOR

Marc R. Matthews, M.D., is board certified in general surgery by the American College of Surgery with a second board certification in surgical critical care. He is the director of trauma at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix and a director of the Arizona Burn Center, where he has been practicing since 2003. Since his arrival at the Arizona Burn Center, he has concentrated on the development of telemedicine for the delivery of burn care throughout the entire state of Arizona and the Southwest, as well as the development of disaster preparedness. In addition to extensive outreach, he has also concentrated on resident education at the Maricopa Integrated Health System surgical residency program.
Apart from research interests, Matthews is also a board member of the Foundation for Burns and Trauma. He recently enlisted in the United States Air Force/Arizona Air National Guard as a surgeon to assist the U.S. military medical services overseas. He has been deployed to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany to support the evacuation and care of critically injured troops prior to their return to the continental United States. He is scheduled to go to Afghanistan this fall as a combat surgeon for the Air Force.