Breast cancer surgeon rides child's pink bike to get through traffic jam for surgery

Catherine Baucom, a breast cancer surgeon in Louisiana, was on her way to a surgery at BRASS Surgery Center of Baton Rouge last Wednesday morning when she found herself caught in a complete traffic shutdown caused by a major accident. She handled it like a boss: the surgeon, who is also a cyclist, borrowed a pink bicycle and helmet decorated with Disney princesses from a nearby friend’s 7-year-old daughter, and she pedaled like hell.

Dr. Baucom remembered a friend that lived a few blocks from her position in the mayhem and made her way to his house. "Catherine called, she was outside my house. She said 'Hey do you have a bike?' I walked outside and said yea, its a kids bike," said Dr. Brian Barnett. After a quick test run, Dr. Baucom decided the bike was her only choice to get to the hospital. "I got the air pump out and aired the tires up as much as I could."
He gladly loaned her his seven year old daughter's bike and helmet and the nearly six foot tall surgeon resumed her journey to the surgery center.
"It was hot pink and small," Dr. Baucom said, describing the bike. "The helmet was pink with princesses." He added he was laughing so much he couldn't get video of her before she peddled away. "But she did utilize the plastic basket on front, to put her cell phone in. Showed her experience with the bike."

Police stopped her, then when she explained what was going on, they escorted her to the hospital. More: Surgeon rides child's bike to get thru traffic nightmare (WLOX.com). More at local CBS affiliate WAFB.

(HT: Jim Maltese)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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bcsizemo

Police stopped her, then when she explained what was going on, they escorted her to the hospital.

Lucky they let her get a word in edge wise and just didn’t taser her or tackle her to the ground first. (Or maybe BB has just made me a bit jaded about the popo.)
- LaylaSV
  
  According to the linked article,”escorted her to the hospital” translates to driving in front of her and videotaping her ride.
  
  I am assuming a detail is being left out as that would mean (a) the road was clear enough for the police car and (b) rather than giving her a ride to the hospital, the police opted to drive in front of her while she rode the funny bike.
  
  That can’t be right?
  - Warren_Terra
    
    Yeah, that was weird. I’d have assumed they’d have given her a lift; it would actually have been easier than keeping pace with her on her mismatched bike.
    
    Minor correction: the cops didn’t videotape her, that was the hospital personnel. At least as per the first link, and the video there.
    - LaylaSV
      
      I figured there had to be more to it.
  - dragonfrog
    
    I suppose depending how close she had gotten to the hospital by that point, and how far her destination at the hospital was from an easily reachable road, that might actually have been the quickest thing.
- http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075
  
  I wonder what was the premise for stopping her?
  - NoWayJose
    
    On reading that, my antiauthoritarian hackles were starting to rise as well – until I realized that the cops had no way of knowing if she had stolen the bike, was the owner, or obtained it with permission. It’s an unusual enough sight that they should legitimately wonder if she’d just taken a kid’s bike and helmet from a home, school, or playground nearby. Or was some kind of mental patient on the lam.
    - vonbobo
      
      Unusual? Sure. Suspicious? I don’t know?
      - cinerik
        
        I think heading for the interstate qualifies as ‘this might be worth checking out’
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      If it were San Francisco, nobody would have even noticed.
      - Shibi_SF
        
        True. Also, no one in SF would have noticed the good doctor, even if she was riding that little bike naked or in just some fluorescent body paint. (But she could get pulled over and ticketed for not stopping at stop signs.)
      - Paul Boudreaux
        
        She was probably stopped at about the 500 yard radius where Hazmat was dealing with the 8700 gallon tanker leaking isobutane that had crashed and blocked I-10 for about 26 hours. I have a friend who was told that no one could enter or leave his apartment complex, which was rather disturbing until the reason was clear. She probably was just passing under I-10 on Essen. That whole area was shut down.
  - Brainspore
    
    Perhaps the blocked road was a highway where pedal bikes are not allowed?
    
    (EDIT to add: Article says the cops caught up with her on the Interstate 10.)
    - dragonfrog
      
      Indeed – if I understood the article right, she was stopped as she reached the I-10.
      - vonbobo
        
        Now that makes more sense.
        
        Honestly, the more I think about the whole situation, it seems like the good doc is a bit of a lunatic to boot! I bet she could run/jog further than she can peddle that bike.
Aidan Cheddar

Now that’s a hero.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

You know that movie cliche where a cop takes someone’s car, telling the driver the car is “needed for police business”?

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t help thinking of that as I read this story. And thinking that I’d much rather hand my car over to a surgeon.
- http://www.facebook.com/jwin74 Jon Winchester
  
  yeah I was waiting to read about some little kid she jacked for the bike
http://twitter.com/tadasyoyolt Tadas Jelinek

One company in my hometown has folding bikes in trunks of most of their cars. Needless to say, they don’t get late to meetings because of “bad transport conditions”.
Holly Hudson

It’s ironic I see this right after reading this: http://www.fox8live.com/story/19355993/nopd-memo-orders-officers-to-pull-over-one-bicyclist-a-day
http://twitter.com/frederikvdz Frederik

“I’m getting too old for this sh*t…”
http://www.oplopanax.ca Oplopanax

It’s just sad that neither she nor her neighbour didn’t have her own adult bike.
- http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter
  
  She most likely had a bike, just not with her at that moment, seeing as how she was headed to perform surgery.
- Warren_Terra
  
  She does have a bike, which she rides, as you’d know if you read the linked article. A traffic jam caught her away from home (and, presumably, from her bike) and near the house of a friend and colleague, whose daughter had a bike. I’d like the gentleman to have a bike of his own, but I’d like lots of people to have lots of nice things. It’s hardly an indictment of the fellow that he – while providing for his daughter and providing medical services to his community – doesn’t have a bicycle.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  The WLOX article says she’s a cyclist and has an adult bike at home.
Ryan Lenethen

They must have solved all the serious crimes already and are moving in on the kids bike recovery program.
- dragonfrog
  
  As the article points out – she was heading onto the I-10. It was probably more in the “stopping incredibly brave/foolish people on inadequate bicycles from being smooshed” program’s rubric.
chaopoiesis

Check out Barnett’s tie!
moioci

I love that she got to keep the princess helmet.
wizardru

I can’t help but think if Cory posted this, it would be about the Doctor being pulled over by the police when she was trying to get to a surgery. I’m jaded, now. :)
jameslosey

Jens Voigt borrowed a kid’s bike after front tire exploded in the Tour de France a couple years back. But it was not pink, and the mission was not this awesome.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/refusing-to-quit-the-tour-de-france/
LaylaSV

Quick question for anyone with a hospital background – scrubs are clearly worn out and about in the wild all the time (I’m looking at you, filthy New York subway). Do doctors and nurses change into a fresh pair when they get to the hospital or just for operations and stuff? Or are they just like street clothes but for people of the medical persuasion? Do they get covered up by other layers in situations where germs matter?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Basically, there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more harmful bugs in the hospital than on the street.
  - LaylaSV
    
    But then why do they wear scrubs at all? Why wouldn’t they just stay in their street clothes?
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      And get their own clothes dirty? I think not. If you’re doing a clean/sterile procedure, you suit up appropriately, but scrubs are just a look, not a precaution.
      
      Nurses traditionally wore white so that you could see if their uniforms were dirty, not because the nursing uniform was any cleaner than other clothing.
      - LaylaSV
        
        Ahhh sooo. Light dawns cross yonder hills.
Brainspore

This is EXACTLY like that scene from “Goonies,” except that instead of getting caught up in the middle of her little brother’s Exciting Pirate Adventure she ended up performing critical surgery.
http://mychemicaljourney.blogspot.com The Chemist

Police stopped her…

Why?

I’m glad they helped her get where she was going, but an adult riding on a kid’s bike isn’t something that should raise suspicions even if it does raise eyebrows.
- Brainspore
  
  Again, on the Interstate. Apparently she ran into them at a roadblock.
  - http://mychemicaljourney.blogspot.com The Chemist
    
    Ah, missed that detail. I am chastened.
http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

Well good thing she wasn’t caught riding a Segway, now that would be embarrassing.
Grey Devil

Like a fucking boss.
teapot

Better than this bike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL7pUIhNSm4
David Carroll

Straight out of Planet Terror?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMoB8gEWf1U
benher

“Like a boss”… Ordinary people doing extraordinary things like a boss!! Great post!
fiatrn

LaylaSV asked
” Do doctors and nurses change into a fresh pair when they get to the hospital or just for operations and stuff”

Do or Should?

We should. Not everyone does. Hospital/industrial laundries use much hotter water than home cleaning and remove more evil bugs from our scrubs. For most workers, the issue is more taking bugs OUT of the hospital than bringing them IN to the hospital.

OSHA says you need clean scrubs for the OR and other high risk areas, and that hospitals should launder those scrubs. Surgeons wash their hands extensively before operating, and then wear gowns and gloves that totally cover their clothes, hats for their hair, and masks as well, often shoe covers to boot.

Still, best practice is to change from your street clothes into hospital clothes when you get to work.

Let us give this apparently cool surgeon the benefit of the doubt, and assume that her scrubs were either a)not worn while riding a bicycle to work and/or b) changed when she arrived at the second hospital. Or perhaps the photos were simply an after-the-surgery photo op with a friend’s camera.

Jonathan
the Fiat RN
Denver, CO
CLamb

That surgeon is in better shape than I. I don’t think I’d trust myself performing surgery immediately after an aerobic workout.
lilinski

She’s my hero of the day.