Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 2, 2021

6 By Andrea Nagel It began just like any other winter weekend. Lachlan May, age 15, was skiing with his family at Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, Idaho. An avid and skilled skier, Lachlan decided to try something new and borrowed a snowboard from a family friend. “It was Super Bowl Sunday, and we wanted to go out for a few runs before the game started,” Lachlan recalled. “We got back down to the basin and I just happened to catch an edge and fall. I fell forward, and I think I landed on my fist. It was very painful and I could tell something wasn’t right.” Lachlan’s 13-year-old sister, Olivia, called their father, Michael May, M.D., a surgeon at Kootenai Clinic General Surgery, for help. “Once we got him back to our condo, I began assessing his condition,” said Dr. May. “He was pale and his belly was distended. I was pretty sure it was his spleen, and we needed to take him to the hospital.” An injuredspleenand internal bleeding Dr. May helped Lachlan to his truck and began the hour-plus drive to Kootenai Health while the rest of the family Lachlan’s family and dog came for daily visits outside his hospital window. GOOD H A ND S L A ND I NG I N Edge of disaster: A snowboarding teen gets the timely trauma care he needs packed up the Super Bowl feast and followed behind. On the road, Dr. May called ahead to alert the emergency department (ED) of their imminent arrival. “Thankfully the ED was pretty quiet because of the game,” Dr. May said. “They were able to take us straight back to a room. Dr. Erin Wenzel, our emergency physician, and Heidi Skinner, our RN, worked quickly to assess Lachlan and prepare him for imaging.” Lachlan’s imaging showed he had a severe spleen injury and internal bleeding. Interventional radiologist Casey Fatz, M.D., with Kootenai Imaging, and general surgeon Heidi Jackson, M.D., with Kootenai Clinic General Surgery, performed a catheter embolization to stop the bleeding. Embolization is a minimally invasive treatment that blocks blood vessels or abnormal vascular channels to stop bleeding. In a catheter embolization procedure, medications or synthetic materials, called embolic agents, are placed through a catheter into a blood vessel to prevent blood flow to the area. Lachlan May enjoys skiing in Idaho.