Motor Vehicle Trauma - A personal account and recommendations for hospital-based pastoral care

IThis paper describes the many impacts from a motor-vehicle accident experienced by the first author in 2004. Following details about the surgical and medical treatment procedures experienced, a number of significant learnings are described. The author provides observations about the kind of pastoral care provided and offers some suggestions for practitioners both in intensive care and post-surgical recovery. Following a presentation to the National Association of Hospital Chaplains in Hobart, January, 2009 entitled Recovery from road accident trauma: Personal reflections and learnings, I have been asked to prepare a summary for the journal. It is co-written with my son who, at the time of admission of his father to the Austin Hospital for spinal surgery, was a registrar in the Emergency Department.