Renowned journalist credits interventional radiology team for saving his life
During a moving plenary session on Tuesday, renowned author, journalist and documentary director Sebastian Junger shared how an interventional radiology team saved his life.
“You are involved with a science that saved my life. So, on behalf of my daughters and my wife, thank you,” Junger said to the audience before detailing his harrowing near death experience.
During the summer of 2020—just after the height of COVID-19—Junger and his wife were given a rare opportunity to spend a short time away together while someone else watched over their young daughters. During that time, they visited their New England cabin. While there, Junger began to experience crippling abdominal pain out of nowhere.
The pain was so intense that he nearly lost consciousness. He says during this time he also temporarily lost his vision, prompting his wife to call for medical help. When paramedics reached Junger he downplayed his symptoms but eventually (and reluctantly), he agreed to let them take him to the hospital to get checked out.
Junger’s condition rapidly deteriorated during the hour-long ambulance ride, and by the time he arrived at the hospital, he was in excruciating pain and near death. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was bleeding internally.
Doctors at the hospital conducted a rapid workup that included an abdominal CTA, leading Philip J. Dombrowski, MD—an attending interventional radiologist—to discover a massive abdominal hemorrhage from a previously undiagnosed aneurysm in his pancreatic artery. Junger was immediately sent to the endovascular suite, where Dombrowski and colleagues would attempt to embolize the aneurysm, as his deteriorating condition made him a poor candidate for surgery.
By the time Junger arrived at the suite, he had already been resuscitated once, prompting his care team to opt for conscious sedation during the procedure. Junger explained that he was in and out of consciousness during this time and was having extremely vivid visions of his deceased father and a “black pit” by his side that he knew he would never come out of if he fell into it.
Junger credits a nurse for keeping him awake and aware during this time.
“I remember the nurse coming over to me and holding my hand and telling me to keep my eyes open,” he said. “I asked why, and she said, ‘so we know you’re still with us.’ That human connection regulates patients. Even as out of it as I was, I couldn’t believe the effect on me.”
The procedure was complicated and Dombrowski’s initial attempts to embolize the bleed were not successful. Junger recalls hearing Dombrowski tell his colleagues they were running out of options and that he wanted to try to access the bleed through his left wrist—an unconventional approach that ultimately saved Junger’s life.
Had Junger been sent for surgery, he likely would not have survived. But because he was sent to the interventional radiology team, his bleeding was stopped before it took his life. He credits Dombrowski and the IR team for him being where he is today.
During a brief panel discussion after Junger’s talk, one of the panelists shared they had googled his story and discovered that search results credited a surgeon, not an interventional radiologist, for Junger’s successful procedure, highlighting the issue of a lack of awareness of IR’s role in life-saving treatments. Junger said that he hopes his story will help raise awareness of the possibilities of IR and that if people knew they could avoid the danger and physical trauma of surgery, “it would absolutely blow their minds.”
Junger details his harrowing experience—as well as the trauma that followed—in his latest book, “In My Time Of Dying.”
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.