After a Feb. 13 deadly shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Sparrow Hospital's trauma team sprang into action, providing individualized care for each of the five victims — showcasing the critical role of trauma care.
"All five patients suffered life-threatening injuries that required the use of five operating rooms and a full complement of thoracic, trauma, neuro and general surgeons," Marschall Runge, MD, PhD, dean of University of Michigan's medical school, wrote in an opinion piece published by The Detroit Free Press.
With nearly 300 mass shootings in the U.S. since 2009, trauma care has increasingly become a major focus for hospitals, but its importance is frequently "overlooked," Dr. Runge said.
"At a time when mass casualty events are far too common in the United States, the work of Level I trauma centers is crucial," he wrote.
Dr. Runge detailed the efforts of his colleague Denny Martin, DO, Sparrow Hospital's chief medical officer, and the hospital's level 1 trauma team, which began organized treatment of the victims in minutes after the shooting.
Even though trauma events of this scale are rare for the hospital, checklists of questions prepared in advance and rehearsals they hoped to never need to act out allowed trauma teams to move quickly and efficiently, he explained.
"Even as trauma teams attended to the MSU victims, other gravely injured individuals arrived for care — including car accidents victims and someone who suffered a heart attack," he wrote. "The medical staff worked through the night to help preserve patient lives."
It's work that is also traumatic for the caregivers, Dr. Ruge noted, and "We, as a culture, tend to take this for granted."