Trauma patients reunite at Loyola's Big Save Barbecue

Alejandro Arroyo, 41, of Cicero, was pushing his stalled truck when he was hit by a car going 45 miles per hour. "I was wedged into the side of my SUV and flattened like a cartoon character," he said. Arroyo was treated at Loyola University Medical Center's Level 1 Trauma Center for a crushed pelvis and multiple injuries in 2009. "I told my wife my life was not over and we needed to celebrate," he said.

In 2011, his wife of 19 years, Rosalinda, gave birth to Chicago's official first baby of the New Year , born at 12:00:01 a.m. at Loyola University Medical Center. The couple named their daughter Alejandra, after her father. The family, with Alejandra now almost eight months old, celebrated at Loyola Level 1 Trauma Center's Big Save Barbecue at Loyola University Medical Center on Saturday, August 20.

More than 1,000 Loyola Trauma patients and their families were invited to reunite with Loyola medical staff and share their survival stories. Tales of recovery from gunshot wounds, motorcycle crashes, falls from rooftops and more were recounted by patients ages 17 to 80.

Virginia Schafer, 72, formerly of Hinsdale, plummeted into a retaining wall when the car she was driving was rear-ended. "My car was built in 1994 and had no air bags so I was crushed," she explained to the audience at Loyola's Big Save Barbecue reunion. "The paramedics later told me they didn't think I was going to make it - my face had to be completely reconstructed."

Melanie Mitchell drove to Loyola from Indiana to celebrate her recovery at Loyola's Big Save Barbecue. "I was just walking along when I was struck by a dirt bike," she said. "I had three skull fractures and brain trauma, plus broken legs and much more." She was flown from Portage, Indiana to Loyola in Maywood, Illinois, outside Chicago.

The hundreds who came shared more than hot dogs, hamburgers and cake. "My brother is not only alive today but walking and back at work because Loyola is a Level 1 Trauma Center," said Sharon Gautschy. Trent Gautschy was pinned under a truck for more than five hours in rural Illinois and airlifted to Loyola for care.

The annual Loyola Big Save Barbecue is led by Dr. Thomas Esposito, chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns in the Department of Surgery at Loyola University Medical Center.

Loyola is the only Level 1 Trauma center certified by the American College of Surgeons in Illinois.

A Level 1 trauma center is equipped to provide comprehensive emergency medical services to patients suffering traumatic injuries -- car and motorcycle crashes, stabbings, athletic injuries, falls -- using multidisciplinary treatment and specialized resources, Esposito said.