{"id":31269,"date":"2020-04-27T13:41:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T19:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=31269"},"modified":"2021-01-21T09:08:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T16:08:27","slug":"in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"In war, hurricane or pandemic, Dr. Evalina Burger performs medically necessary surgeries"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

This would not be the first time that Dr. Evalina Burger has hung out a sign that says \u201cMedical Help Available.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Caring for people during crisis is ordinary for Burger, an orthopedic surgeon at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a>. She has repaired blast injuries for refugees fleeing war in Angola, performed the first surgeries for those maimed during Hurricane Katrina and now, during the global pandemic, she is in the operating room doing spine surgeries for those at risk of paralysis or deadly infections.<\/p>\n

In recent days, she and all UCHealth hospitals resumed medically necessary\u00a0surgeries for people who needed help but had to wait until a surge in COVID-19 patients passed. Burger and teams of physicians and medical experts are taking every precaution to keep all patients safe from the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Evalina Burger. Photo: University of Colorado School of Medicine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As one of the world\u2019s experts on spinal surgery, Dr. Burger is no stranger to adversity. A native of South Africa, she chairs the Department of Orthopedics<\/a> at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In her early years, she volunteered to serve in the medical corps for the South African military and led a surgery unit there at a time when very few women were even performing surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI held the rank of captain,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cAt that time, we were providing humanitarian help to Angola. I was taught to speak Portuguese fluently so I could communicate with patients flowing out of Angola.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked with multiple amputees, those injured from land mines and machete injuries. And that is what turned my desire toward orthopedics,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cI started to enjoy all of these surgeries that we did to save limbs; replant toes to work as thumbs and all of the scary stuff that you do in a war zone. That was the beginning of my career.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Burger<\/a> was certified to practice medicine in 1984, and then earned certification as an orthopedic surgeon in 1993. She was recruited to the United States as an associate professor at Louisiana State University Health Science Center<\/a>. She built an adult spine program there and then Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans, the worst hurricane ever in the United States.<\/p>\n

She has not forgotten the day the city ordered that residents evacuate the city by zip code.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we packed up our car and spent hours on the road. It was eerie to see highways going only in one direction, with lanes and lanes of cars,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cAs we were driving by cars, you could see that they had their livelihood in the car \u2013 the dogs, the cats, the chickens on the roof rack. It was weird, it was very weird.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

She sent her parents, who had been visiting from South Africa, back home. She and her husband, son and two dogs packed their truck and drove to Los Angeles because her son, at the time a child actor, had business there.<\/p>\n

Burger then packed up the truck and drove to the Super Dome in Houston to pick up her administrative assistant, who had sought refuge there, and the two drove back to New Orleans, which was under water.<\/p>\n

\"A
UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. Photo by UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI stayed with kind people who had a house on top of their barn,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cAnd I took a pontoon boat over the river. I was 96 miles from the hospital, and I was one of 36 doctors who returned to the city and work out of the Kenner Hospital very early.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, she and other doctors cleared the building of mud and rocks. Since all channels of communication had been silenced, Burger had only one way to let people know that the hospital was open. She placed a cardboard sign outside of the hospital: \u201cMedical care available.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no phones, no pharmacy, no blood bank, but I was able to perform the first surgery. We had to take care of very significant injuries. We had people cutting themselves with chain saws, and shooting themselves in the hand with nail guns. We had teenagers playing \u2018chicken\u2019 on the freeway and we didn\u2019t have a blood bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very taxing, but my previous military experience served me well during that time.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Now, in the throes of a worldwide pandemic, Dr. Burger is unfazed. She\u2019s been in the operating room frequently in March and April because some patients risked paralysis and death from serious infections without intervention.<\/p>\n

Since November of 2018, she has led the CU School of Medicine\u2019s Department of Orthopedics. She has been an active investigator and educator working to find new metal-alloy compositions to improve orthopedic implants. She has helped to implement the use of new spinal rods that result in more than 90% fewer fractures in patients. These rods are each individually designed for each patient specifically.<\/p>\n

On March 13, 2020 \u2013 Friday the 13th<\/sup> \u2013 the day the United States began to reckon with the grave threat of an invisible virus, when word that surgeries would be\u00a0postponed in hospitals across the country, Burger knew she was living in another extraordinary time, not a war or a hurricane, but a pandemic.<\/p>\n

In the following days, she picked up the telephone and personally called each of her patients. She was sorry to inform them, she told them, that their surgeries would have to be postponed for safety reasons. She would reschedule as soon as she possibly could.<\/p>\n

In the next few days she and other surgeons didn\u2019t have to clean buildings of muck from a hurricane, but they quickly drafted plans to ensure that all patients entering UCHealth surgical suites during the pandemic were safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are rolling out very slowly, we have enough PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to protect both of our patients and our providers. We are practicing social distancing, that means we won\u2019t have as many rooms open, that means we won\u2019t have as many patients lined up and waiting for surgery,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

Every patient scheduled for surgery will be tested for COVID-19. When surgery is completed, every room will be terminally cleaned,<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be completely sanitized, and we are taking other precautions. When we intubate patients, no one will be in the room for the first 15 minutes except for the anesthesiologist in a full suit. That way, we limit exposure,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

After surgery, patients will be cared for in private rooms and patients will be watched over via telehealth and remote monitoring, which means contact with patients are limited to only needed interactions \u2013 a practice in place before COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making sure that when we are doing surgery, we\u2019re doing surgery that is medically necessary and we are not doing surgeries that would involve a patient going to a skilled nursing facility afterwards, because that is where we are seeing the biggest outbreaks. We are going to start on surgeries for our patients that are medically necessary and patients\u00a0are healthy enough to have a short hospital stay and go home.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been providing excellent care for our patients, we\u2019ve been using telehealth and making sure taking care of everyone during this period of uncertainty,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

In the coming days, as surgery suites begin to slowly\u00a0come back on line in UCHealth hospitals across the Front Range, doctors will have everything they need to help people and keep them safe. They\u2019ll have PPE, sanitized rooms, a blood bank, a pharmacy and the ability to widely communicate \u2013 everything at the ready.<\/p>\n

In this crisis, and others, Dr. Evalina Burger will be there, too. Rest assured.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This would not be the first time that Dr. Evalina Burger has hung out a sign that says \u201cMedical Help Available.\u2019\u2019 Caring for people during crisis is ordinary for Burger, an orthopedic surgeon at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. She has repaired blast injuries for refugees fleeing war in Angola, performed the first surgeries for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":31271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4859,4860],"class_list":["post-31269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovative-care","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn pandemic, medically necessary surgeries resume - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In recent days, all UCHealth hospitals resumed medically necessary\u00a0surgeries for people who needed help but had to wait because of COVID-19.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In war, hurricane or pandemic, Dr. Evalina Burger performs medically necessary surgeries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent days, all UCHealth hospitals resumed medically necessary\u00a0surgeries for people who needed help but had to wait because of COVID-19.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCHealth Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uchealthorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-27T19:41:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-21T16:08:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/27094757\/Evalina-Burger-from-breakthrough-ads.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/f989ee92cb6da7cfb7f697db1c6771b3\"},\"headline\":\"In war, hurricane or pandemic, Dr. Evalina Burger performs medically necessary surgeries\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-27T19:41:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-21T16:08:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\"},\"wordCount\":1294,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/27094757\/Evalina-Burger-from-breakthrough-ads.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"coronavirus\",\"COVID-19\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Innovative care\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/in-war-hurricane-or-pandemic\/\",\"name\":\"In pandemic, medically necessary surgeries resume - 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