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Trauma is an injury caused by a physical force. There are two types of injury
- unintentional and intentional. Unintentional injury occurs
without intent to harm—examples are motor vehicle crashes, falls, poisoning,
fires, drowning,
sports injury, occupational injury, and choking. Intentional injury is caused by purposeful human action and
usually refers to some type of violence, either self inflicted or
inflicted by someone else - examples are suicide, homicide, assaults,
rape and sexual abuse, abuse, and terrorist attacks.
Trauma kills more people between the ages of 1 and 44 than any other disease or illness.
Numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics show
that, more than any other group, trauma has the greatest impact on
children and young adults, accounting for:
- 43 percent of all deaths from age 1-4,
- 48 percent of all deaths in ages 5-14,
- 62 percent of all deaths in ages 15-24.
According to the American College of Surgeons,
nationally, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for
individuals ages one to 24, the second leading cause
for individuals ages 35 to 44, and the third leading cause
for people 45 to 54 years old.
Studies of conventional trauma care show that up to 35
percent of trauma patient deaths could have been prevented if a
trauma center had been available.
Trauma centers are responsible for saving
thousands of lives by ensuring that severely injured patients
receive the care they need within the “golden hour”.
Current medical practices prove that treatment delivered
within that crucial first hour following severe injury is likely to
mean the difference between temporary and permanent disability and
perhaps, between life and death.
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