A friend once told Thomas Scalea he couldn?t get into medical school.
Maryland?s men and women in uniform are grateful he took the challenge.
Dr. Scalea, the director of the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, has personally committed to serve every officer or first responder who falls in the line of duty, and he has saved some lives more than once.
“They?re in a job where they?re more likely than the average person to get hurt, and they?re more likely to get really hurt,” Scalea told The Examiner. “I think they have a right to expect that.”
His staff has standing orders to call him any time a police officer, firefighter or medic takes a fall in the line of duty.
Scalea worked to save the life of State Trooper Eric D. Workman, 36, after Workman was shot Tuesday when serving a warrant in Woodlawn. Scalea first saved Workman?s life after he was struck by a car in September 1998 while directing traffic, state police said. Workman remains in critical condition.
“Those of us in law enforcement are very reassured to know that a man of his expertise is there for us if we get hurt,” state police spokesman 1st Sgt. Russell Newell said. “In my own experience, it?s comforting to know this man will go out of his way to take care of us if something happens.”
Newell said he was confident Workman was in good hands.
Scalea never considered going into law enforcement, and the field is not in his family background. But he said he feels a responsibility to those who risk their lives every day.
“If you look at the general class of people who serve ? police serve, firemen serve, emergency medical technicians serve and we serve ? we all serve the public. There?s a real kinship to that mentality,” he said.
A bachelor, Scalea said his life has a randomness to it. He graduated from the University of Virginia without ever selecting a major, and was working in a warehouse when he got an acceptance letter from the Medical College of Virginia.
He did choose to come to Maryland in 1997, however.
“The trauma system in the state of Maryland is unparalleled by any system in the world,” he said. “At least if a better system exists, I?ve never seen it. No other system in the country has chosen to underwrite trauma the way Maryland has.”
