UAB Hospital in Birmingham handles the largest number of gunshot victims in Alabama. Some weekends, it's as many as 10 to 15 gun violence victims a night. A look into the ways the hospital is innovating and studying its own practices to save more lives:
The care performed in the first hour after an injury, the “golden hour,” can mean the difference between life and death. It’s harder to provide such life-saving care if a surgeon is already busy working on another patient.
Birmingham has struggled with rising rates of gun violence in the last several years, mirroring trends from across the country. Kerby said trauma surgeons nationwide have struggled to handle and understand rising levels of violence. They have pushed for more funding for research into firearms injuries and implemented plans to help prevent victims from being shot again.
“If you get here with a pulse and you don’t have a lethal brain injury, you have a 95 percent chance of walking out of here,” Kerby said. “Studying what we do in the first hour and the first couple of hours has improved how we treat people.” One example, whole blood, has improved outcomes for people with heavy bleeding. Decades ago, during the Vietnam War, Cox said blood banks began separating blood into its component parts: plasma, cells and clotting factor. They would give patients IV fluids and cells to replace lost blood.
Although UAB trauma surgeons are good at repairing gunshot wounds, they are powerless to prevent them. But UAB is trying to implement a program that could help some victims of gun violence.
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