Closing Keynote: The fire within—The art of bold self leadership

Editor's Note

“I can't believe I'm about to take my last breath,” is what Allison Massari, executive coach, burn survivor, and the closing keynote speaker of this year’s OR Manager Conference, said she thought while she was stuck in a burning car after a horrible head-on collision. She had just come from the art supply store, and the art supplies crowding the backseat of her car only served to feed the flames and make the fire she survived that much more devastating.

Showing a captivating vulnerability, Massari spoke of strength and resilience as she detailed the difficult healing journey that followed. Physical strength was a necessity, of course. The treatment and surgical procedures for the 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns on over 50% of her body were unspeakably painful to endure. From the moment she was rescued from the burning car, she said pain was all she knew. “I wasn’t asking myself how I’ll get through the next year, or the next month, or even the next day. I’d ask myself, ‘How am I going to get through the next second?’” she said.

In intense moments such as the immediate aftermath of this horrific accident, where everyone is tense and filled with urgency because of the literal life-or-death stake, it’s easy to forget to pause and check on the moment, Massari noted. She talked through what she remembered of her rescue, and how the paramedics were urgently cutting through all her clothes to begin treating her. There was a crowd of onlookers, and with lungs full of smoke, Massari wasn’t able to voice her fears. “I heard them say they needed to turn me over, and I was embarrassed. I didn’t want everyone to see me naked,” she said. “You’d think that would be the least of my concerns, but that’s how I felt. And one of them noticed.” In the chaos, one firefighter saw her panic and told everyone to stop. In a few seconds, he determined her concerns and covered her with a coat while the paramedics continued to work. “They were in an intense situation, but he took an extra few seconds to give me my dignity. I felt so cared for and seen.”

Moments of kindness like this one were what got Massari through the harrowing pain and depression of the next few months and years. To this day, almost 20 years after the accident, she still remembers the doctors who stopped to take her hand and the nurses who took the time to speak to her and reassure her. One in particular spent a few seconds caressing her hair. “It was a 7-second interaction, but it meant so much. I can still feel it,” she said. “I’ll never forget it. It filled me with so much love.”

Yes, Massari needed physical strength to survive her ordeal, but she argued the emotional and mental resilience was just as crucial, if not more. "If you take just one thing from me today, let it be this: Compassion heals the places that medicine cannot touch. You are healers,” she stressed with the OR Manager Conference audience. “You heal people every day. Every time you pause and do something kind for your patients, I promise you, they notice.” Healthcare as a profession can be a thankless job, Massari acknowledged—but odds are patients might be in too much pain, for instance, to voice their appreciation. “On behalf of all of us, thank you. Thank you for everything you do,” she said.