Surrounded by Geniuses

Author:Alan Gregerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

In a more important and compelling sense, every admission to this unique hospital is met by the entire hospital’s team of nurses, technicians, and physicians. No one who is needed is on call. At any moment of any day, world-class professionals in every single specialty are on site at the hospital, all ready to head to the second floor. Each stands ready at a moment’s notice to bring to bear whatever specialized expertise is required to save a life.

They are supported by the latest and most accessible technology available. Within the self-contained world of the trauma resuscitation unit are 12 identical assessment bays, six identical operating units, and all of the essential diagnostic equipment and services that would be needed to treat any patient. This includes the Statscan machine that can make a detailed total body scan in 13 seconds, enabling the medical team to pinpoint the exact location of any bullets or fractures. It also includes the latest X-ray equipment, CT scanner, angiogram equipment, ventilators, its own supply of all blood types, and a direct connection to the lab which can complete diagnostic work within five minutes. As one nurse put it, “It’s a lot like a spaceship in here—anything we need for any case is literally within 100 feet of any patient.”

During the next twenty-four hours, the hospital staff will see twenty-five new patients. On the day I visited the center, this included the victim of a high-speed car crash and rollover, a man with three stab wounds in the back, someone with a severe spinal cord injury from a fall, a person with multiple broken bones from a fall, and a woman who was 27 weeks pregnant who had been kicked in the stomach by a horse.

Most firms and organizations do little more than provide lip service to the notion of being ready, willing, and brilliant around the clock.

While the case we began with came by ambulance from the too often dangerous streets of the city, we could have just as easily followed a medevac helicopter as it sped from the scene of a highway accident, poisoning, or construction or boating accident to the helipad on the center’s roof. Again the patient would have been met by the same team and rushed within the same two minutes to the second-floor trauma resuscitation unit. About 60 percent of the center’s patients come as a result of motor vehicle accidents, 25 percent as a result of interpersonal violence, and most of the remaining 15 percent as a result of industrial or recreational accidents.

The fact that they are all rushed here and then to treatment is vital to this story—the history of the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, its remarkable success, and the modern practice of trauma care.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.