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Sunday, May 5, 2002
Douglas Binder, 44, Trauma Center Doctor, Albuquerque
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
It took a couple of years pulling night shifts in the University of New Mexico Hospital trauma center and the birth of his son to send Douglas Binder shopping for a new car. He looked for the biggest, heaviest SUV he could find — something that might stand up well in a contest with a drunken driver.
As clinical director of the emergency room that treats the most severe injuries from across the state, Binder sees firsthand how often driving and alcohol mix with tragic consequences.
Five years at University of New Mexico Hospital and two years before that as a doctor in Gallup have turned the native New Yorker into a self-described "ranting and raving maniac" on the subject of drunken driving. His experience patching up drunken drivers and their victims has taught him that New Mexico's DWI problem is horrendous.
"It's not getting better. Cars are getting safer, and we're getting more sophisticated at treating people," Binder says. "The problem is tremendously underrated. It's awful. It's absolutely awful."
And Binder sees things others do not: Drunks who have crashed their cars and gotten to the hospital without being detected by police. Under state law, Binder cannot report them. He patches them up and sends them back to the streets.
"You feel like it's a revolving door," Binder says. "And it is."
When a trauma patient arrives, Binder gets a thumbnail sketch of where the accident happened, who hit whom and what vehicle the victim was in. That information has changed the way the doctor lives his life.
He and his wife stay off two-lane roads after dark. They stay home more often. And they put their faith in a big, heavy truck.
"I get to see this firsthand in a way that other people don't. It's not an abstract concept to me," says Binder. "I'm terribly nervous."