When he was seven-years old, Dr. Lenworth Jacobs was riding with his father when they came upon a serious accident on the highway. Jacobs’ dad, a surgeon, stopped to help, and the course of his son’s life was forever altered.
“Watching him help those people was a very profound event for me,” Jacobs said. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do from then on.”
Since that day, Jacobs has saved countless lives both with his own surgical skills and through programs he has initiated as director of trauma and emergency medicine at Hartford Hospital and chairman of traumatology and emergency medicine at the UConn Health Center.
After joining the Hartford Hospital staff in 1983, Jacobs was instrumental in establishing LIFE STAR, Connecticut’s only critical care helicopter service. The program now includes two airborne ICUs that make about 1,200 flights each year, serving critically ill and injured patients within a 150-mile radius of its Hartford base.
Just recently, LIFE STAR was named Program of the Year by the Association of Air Medical Services — the highest recognition an air medical transport program can receive.
Jacobs has also turned the emergency rooms at both Hartford Hospital and Connecticut Children’s into Level 1 trauma centers operating under the Connecticut Trauma Institute umbrella.
“We have a full team of all specialties waiting for you 24/7,” Jacobs said. “It’s really important that we’re absolutely ready when you have your crash, because that makes the difference between life and death, and our ability to return you to the status you were prior to the event, especially with head injuries.”
Jacobs is also responsible for training trauma surgeons across the globe without needing to leave Connecticut. The Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) course he developed uses standardized procedures, life-sized models that closely simulate the human body, and repeated practice to teach specific surgical skills. The program has trained more than 2,000 surgeons in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa and Japan.
“Len has made enormous contributions both here and around the world,” said Jeffrey A. Flaks, Hartford Hospital president and CEO. “He has a profound commitment to caring for the underserved and training future physicians. We’re really blessed to have him in this community.”
His contributions are also being recognized beyond Hartford. Jacobs is now one of 18 regents of the prestigious American College of Surgeons and he recently received an honorary degree from his alma mater, the University of the West Indies in his native Jamaica.
One of Jacobs’ current projects is the development of a mature driving program to help older people assess their skills behind the wheel and make adjustments to enable them to continue to drive safely.
“When you take away someone’s car, their whole life changes dramatically,” he said. “We want to approach the situation in a positive way so they can keep driving, but cut the incidence of crashes.”
The program aims to make individualized recommendations such as getting a new eyeglass prescription or refraining from driving during twilight or darkness.
That program, like LIFE STAR, the Trauma Institute, and especially the ATOM course, will be particularly satisfying for Jacobs because “they work while you’re sleeping,” he said. “When you teach an individual to do something better, they can take that back to their hometown or their country and there is a very direct impact.”
“It’s an immense satisfaction that transcends everything.”
STATS
Name: Lenworth Jacobs
Title: Director, Trauma and Emergency Medicine
Workplace: Hartford Hospital
Address: 80 Seymour Street, Hartford
Website: www.harthosp.org
