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Our director of trauma surgery at Penn died in Irag this week.

He was pretty rad. I will miss him…a lot.

This is an article he wrote about philly and the war outside our front doors.

The War in West Philadelphia

By John P. Pryor
Sunday, August 5, 2007

I didn’t hear the cars screech to a halt, but one of the trauma nurses did. He ran outside with two emergency department medics to find several people in a car, all of their clothes soaked with blood. The passengers were screaming for someone to help the young man in the front seat, who was unresponsive. The team threw the limp victim onto a gurney, one of several that stand waiting for these types of scenarios, which occur almost nightly at our trauma center.

As the gurney rolled in, I saw a lifeless young man with more gunshot wounds than I could count. I was poised to start a resuscitation effort when a voice behind me announced that three more were coming in. As the team started CPR and checked for cardiac activity, the second and third victims were wheeled in.

A young girl had a gunshot wound to the abdomen that made her writhe in pain. Her movements were slow and her mental functioning was impaired, signaling to me that she was in profound shock — she was dying. I caught only a passing glance of the third patient, who had a gunshot wound to the neck and was coughing up blood. Those brief images were enough for me to sum up a desperate situation; I pronounced the first patient dead to concentrate resources on the other critically injured.

The nursing staff rolled the dead man’s body into a bed and readied the stall for the fourth patient, who had three gunshot wounds to his right arm and two to his left. With the emergency medicine physicians, surgery residents and medics working on the two critical patients, I assigned the fourth patient to a capable medical student who courageously accepted the battlefield promotion to intern.

In the swirl of screams and moving figures, my mind drifted to my recent experience in Iraq as an Army surgeon. There we dealt regularly with “mascals,” or mass-casualty situations. In Iraq, ironically, I found myself drawing on my experience as a civilian trauma surgeon each time mascals would overrun the combat hospital. As nine or 10 patients from a firefight rolled in, I sometimes caught myself saying “just like another Friday night in West Philadelphia.”

The wounds and nationalities of the patients are different, but the feelings of helplessness, despair and loss are the same. In Iraq, soldiers die for freedom, for honor, for their country and for their buddies. Here in Philadelphia, they die without honor, without purpose, for no country, for no one.

More young men are killed each day on the streets of America than on the worst days of carnage and loss in Iraq. There is a war at home raging every day, filling our trauma centers with so many wounded children that it sometimes makes Baghdad seem like a quiet city in Iowa.

Unlike the Iraq conflict, this war is not on the front pages of The Post or on CNN. You have heard of the Washington area sniper shootings and the massacre at Virginia Tech. I am sure you have not heard about the “Lex Street massacre,” in which 10 people ages 15 to 56 were lined up and shot, execution-style, in the winter of 2000. Seven were killed, three critically injured.

You haven’t heard about this tragedy because it happened to inner-city poor people in a crack house in Philadelphia. Imagine, for a moment, if this had occurred in a suburban shopping mall or if a Marine unit in Iraq had been involved. There would be shock, outrage, 24-hour news coverage, Senate hearings and a new color of ribbon to wear. That double standard, that triage of compassion and empathy, is why the war on the streets continues unabated.

I am on call Wednesday night. The statistics indicate that then I will once again walk with the chaplain to a small room off the emergency room. I will open a heavy brown door and make eye contact with a room full of people; a mother, perhaps a father or a grandmother. They will look at me with tears welling up, their knees weak, and lean forward while watching my lips, bracing for news about their loved one. I will remain standing and reach out to hold the mother’s hand. My announcement will be short and firm, the intonation polished from years of practice. The words will be simple for me to say, but sharp as a sword for them to hear; “I am sorry, your son has died.”

The writer directs the trauma program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He served at a combat hospital in Abu Ghraib Iraq.

This is a link to his memorial site:

DR. JOHN PRYOR

John:

* as a soldier, we respect and salute you.
* as a teacher, we seek to emulate you.
* as a visionary, we support you.
* as a surgeon, we recognize your master skills
* as a human, we applaud and memorialize your unique and lasting contributions.

Evert had some work and Jenna and I got to enjoy some good shopping / partying / eating / drinking / hanging/ wondering / sleeping / chatting girl time. It was awesome. Lucky for us they are coming back again next week so we get even more QT with them and E won’t have to work. NICE! Danke E and J. You are the best friends anyone could ask for!!
Here are some of the highlights:
Waiting in line at the Y3 show…

The Y3 show:

The man of the hour and mr adi big pants himself

awww..such a cute couple

“Master E”:

Cec and his ladies near the Soho Grand:

Only in NYC..sidewalk suntanning. Middle of the day on a Tuesday. awesome:

The Hotel was amazing. The Empire up on the west side on 63rd. The roof top was great. Cool bar and hang out area but a weird situation with drinking. You can only drink behind the glass in the bar. no alcohol out in the open. The view and neon sign were worth the sacrifice..

It rained really hard one morning and I caught this shot from the hotel room window. Two hug bus tours full of people in trash bags. Hilarious.

The new Y3 store opening in Soho…

Denny and Kim are living down in Tampa right now and they ventured out to the gulf to see us while we were down in Florida. They got to introduce us to their new guy Easton. He was awesome as was Brighton. We had a blast playing soccer and swimming and just catching up.

Hurry up and finish your house so you can move back to the Jersey shore already!! We miss you guys…

Happy Birthday Lady!

I miss your guts

Thinking about you and sending you good thoughts all day long…jump off the rock for me would ya…

Hugs

We ran into Gin at some random bar in Portland. She was getting some ink done and we were boozin’ it up at the pre-wedding party. So great to see her and catch up. She’s got deep PA roots and we love her!! Come visit us soon girl!

I just can’t get enough…

It was so much fun out in Portland this year. We did something a little different since Jenna and Evert planned their wedding for the end of July..we skipped our annual forth of July trip and came out at the end of the month for the festivities. If it wasn’t for ridiculous gas prices we def would have gone for both since Chuck was so sad to not have the opportunity to blow shit up this year. Next year will have to be bigger and better to make up for it.

The wedding was amazing! In every single way. Great food, fun dancing, amazing house and most of all the best friends anyone could ask for! Thanks Faz - as always - for being the host with the most and Jenna and E for just being you. Everything was fantastic and perfect and wonderful and…yeah.

It was so great to hang with truly genuine friends and drive go-carts and hit balls in the batting cages and play vibrating video games with everyone. Thanks for making us feel so welcome year after year. It never gets old coming out there…and who knows…maybe if someone comes in as the high bidder we may just make the move back! HA

We went to the roof top Mexican joint one night with the Argentines. The food sucks there, but the drinks and the view are great. We stayed for a few cocktails and head to get some sushi after…

While the cousins were here from Argentina we took them down to Atlantic city to hang out and shop for a day. It was so much fun. We ate at the Continental up on top of the pier and did some pretty serious shopping damage…

Stephen Starr has the perfect taste for decorating restaurants in my opinion…

We scored… Big time on the flight home from Tokyo. Chuck and all his awesomeness got us upgraded to first class because of his status with good ol’ United. Word. It was awesome. Super nice plane and we even talked the steward into letting us bring Ramon and Wendy up front to pound Champaign with us. Here are some of the highlights. It’s funny how you could care less about how far the flight is when you are cozy and content.

Tokyo Airport

We even got in a quick sushi train last meal on our way out. It was delicious.

Shots outside the duty free shop. So great.

The classic shot

So much leg room even for me..

Bringing the crew up to drink with us.

They even feed you really well. seared tuna..what?! crazy good.

Had paintball practice last night. Forgot how much it stings when you get shot. I need to work on not getting shot so much in the same exact spot. I took 3 balls right in a line on my right arm. It’s so much fun though. The field was set up a little crazy with a few too many bunkers but we managed. Kevin Misko came out to play with one of his D4 team mates which was fun. We talked Ramon into coming even though he was whining about his foot. boo-hoo.

My arm:

The fish market is awesome. Just soo freakin’ cool. We got up at like 4:15am and headed out for the 5am tuna auction. Numerous people told us not to miss it. I was having trouble understanding why that early in the morning as my head pounded, but when we got there I quickly realized what they were talking about!

The tuna are gigantic and it’s really fun to watch everyone scramble to bid on the ones they want. Cruising through the rest of the market is a real treat. Lots of worming stuff to look at, smells to take in and 3 wheel carts to avoid.

We headed over to have a sushi breakfast at 6am after we were done the auction festivities. BEST sushi of my life..for sure. I can’t imagine ever having anything that tastes better then what we had. No body spoke English in the place we went to, but it didn’t really matter. We just ate whatever they put in front of us (except for the raw shrimp one).

Getting there was fun. The subway is usually a very hectic and crazy place. At 4:30am it is totally empty. It was a treat.

I even asked this guy directions all in Japanese. Go me.

The auction:

The sushi breakfast of all time:

We met up with Dave and Tiff at Gonpachi for dinner one night. Dave works for Adidas Japan and they just recently got married! Yipee. We had an amazing dinner at the restaurant from Kill Bill. Super good food and a great place all around. We’ll be going back there for sure. Hopefully Dave and Tiff will come through Philly sometime so we can return the hospitality…

Ukari’s purse had some sick internal neon lights that lit up when she opened it so she could find stuff in it in the dark. Awesome Japanese technology. Ha

My yummy tofu:

Chuck’s crazy dumplings:

The lovely newlyweds:

Chuck and Ramon went way to hard at the rehearsal dinner…I know what happened to Chuck because I helped clean up the aftermath but Wendy shot this great one of Ramon.

We went with the lovely card family down to Logan Circle yesterday to catch the Triple crown of cycling. it was stupid hot so we only stayed until the end of the women’s race and then we went home to catch the end of the men’s on TV. I don’t know how they rode 156 miles in that weather but they kept it exciting all the way until the end. The men had a pack sprint to the line which is always exciting! the women also had a good finish for 2nd place with another pack sprint and a very hard crash for a few of the riders. Sucks to go that far and then crash 100 yards from the line and get a DNF. ugh.

We made it home last night or early this morning. I am tired. ugh.

10 hours flight from Seoul, South Korea to Vancouver, Canada. 5 hours to DC and 20 minutes to Philly.

Everything went super smooth and we made all our insane connections with a few small sprints with some of them. The trip was beyond amazing. We can’t wait to go back!

I’ll have some work to do with photos this weekend after I figure out what day it is and what time zone my body is on.

Here are a few to get you going…

We went to Wendy and Ramon’s wedding rehersal dinner in China town. lots of insane food, alcohol and unbelievable karaoke! Whew. Korea is going to be insane if this night was any indication of how they party!!

Andrea and Keith had us over for some BBQ action the other night. Keith is about to finish his residency at Penn in a few short weeks and they are leaving us for the rolling hills of Kentucky…boo hoo we will for sure miss you guys like crazy!!

Their kids are amazing and they should def. make a lot more

So I’m going to pretty much let the pictures tell the story. It was a blast and Mary and Josh really set it up great! Thanks guys!! Cant wait for the next one

The vineyards:

jeff had to give the cab driver directions with his garmen

let the games begin

Then it was off to do some speed sight seeing in DC

Josh was so pissed when one of his neighbors saw bird doing this. Can’t imagine why. HA

Man these vineyards have no idea what they are in store for tomorrow. It’s gonna get ugly quick and I have a feeling we may even be the first crew thrown out of a wine tasting event for this season. WOOT. Bring on the iron-on Boones Farm T-shirts.

Going down to Washington DC for a wine tasting. Josh and Mary set it up and we are on a crazy chartered bus and everything. Should be great. I have never gone wine tasting and I am really looking forward to it. I’m hoping that the Cherry blossom’s will still be in bloom. We are going to make a crazy run through the museum’s and shops as well.

Bird circa 2007

ahhhhh hahahahahaha

As always we had some of our good friends over to the White house for Easter lunch. This year was very mellow. No big problems or accidents which is wonderful!

Hope everyone had a nice easter!

My Hubby and my favorite mommma-in-law

Me and my buddy Warren

Chuck and Ralph and their matching ties

Pam looking fancy in her dress

Everyone loaded back in the bus, with full belly’s ready for a nap