In trauma centers, we often focus on the moment of injury — the damage done, the teams activated, the immediate impact we can make. Rarely do we pause to reflect or celebrate the “wins” in trauma care. We know all too well that trauma is unpredictable. Yet each May, trauma centers across the country observe Trauma Survivors Day — a day to honor the strength of those who have survived devastating injuries and the care teams who stood beside them. As an emergency nurse, it was refreshing to see a celebration, where often we find people on their worst day. The recognition at Johns Hopkins Hospital was to celebrate their journey and recognize survivors with plaques and gifts.
I started in a new role, the trauma program manager position in 2023, as I settled into my new role – I found myself listening to Kintsugi, an album by Ben Gibbard. One line from Gibbard’s description of the album resonated with me:
“The idea of kintsugi — the notion of repairing something with gold, making it more beautiful than it was before — really resonated with where I was at emotionally, and where the band was.”
It resonated with me too — professionally and personally. The timing was serendipitous. It gave us a new lens through which to view trauma recovery and our trauma center’s role in it — as both witness and architect of healing.
The Art of Golden Joinery
Kintsugi, which means “golden joinery”, is a centuries-old Japanese artform (see picture). When pottery breaks, it’s not discarded or glued back together invisibly. Instead, its fractures are mended using lacquer mixed with powdered gold. The result is something more beautiful than before — not in spite of the breakage, but because of it. The cracks become part of the story.
The art and it’s philosophy mirrored the emotional and physical journeys I was seeing every day in trauma care — especially as we prepared for Trauma Survivors Day.
Survivors of trauma — whether from crashes, falls, assaults, or gun violence — carry both visible and invisible scars. Healing is not about erasing what happened – fixing and forgetting. Rather, it’s about reclaiming trauma, with about reintegration, restoration, and, ultimately, transformation.
The Gold: A Symbol of System-Wide Excellence
In the art of kintsugi, gold is not just filler. It is a celebration of repair. In our trauma system, the “gold” represents the excellence woven into every aspect of care:
- The rigorous training and certifications our teams pursue to stay sharp and prepared.
- The on-call surgeons, nurses, and specialists who respond, 24/7, without hesitation.
- The infrastructure of readiness — trauma bays, helicopters, transfer protocols — that supports every moment of care.
- The injury prevention initiatives that work upstream, preventing violence, crashes, and falls before they happen.
- The rehabilitation and recovery services that empower patients to reclaim their independence and dignity.
Each of these efforts is a golden seam — whether rooted in our legacy of Maryland’s trauma system advocacy, driven by emerging research, or embedded in the daily practice at the bedside by teams committed to improving care with every shift.
Honoring the Journey: Trauma Survivors Day
Trauma Survivors Day is more than a celebration — it’s a testament to resilience. Across Maryland, trauma centers mark the day with survivor reunions, hospital ceremonies, community outreach, and peer connection.
It’s a chance to hear voices that have weathered the unimaginable — the worst times of their lives and recover, not only healed and out of the hospital, rather to change and transformed. It’s a reminder of why we do this work.
At Johns Hopkins, we have been proud to shift our celebration from a simple acknowledgment to something more reflective. Celebrating survival is important, but a direct reflection on how to honor the journey, the healing, and the systems of care that support it. Kintsugi has become more than a metaphor; it is a philosophy for how our system thinks about recovery, resilience, and community.
In trauma care, as in life, repair isn’t failure — it’s resilience made visible. Each scar, stitch, limp, misstep, and success is a testament to the craft and complexity of building a trauma system.
Blog written and submitted by: Zakk Arciaga, Trauma Program Manager, Johns Hopkins Hospital
