GENERAL FACTS, NATIONAL INFORMATION

• Trauma is defined as a life threatening physical injury caused by an external force (i.e. motor vehicle crashes, violence, falls, etc.
  
• Trauma kills more Americans under the age of 44 each year than cancer, heart disease, AIDS, or any other disease.
  
• Every four seconds someone will suffer from trauma.
  
• Every six minutes, someone in the United States dies from trauma.
  
• Injury is the leading medical cost to the American taxpayers, and prevention is more cost effective than treatment.
  
• Trauma kills or disables people during their most productive years of life.
  
• Approximately nine million individuals in the U.S. suffer a trauma injury every year.
  
• One in three Americans will experience a trauma injury this year.
  
• Trauma is the number one killer of children.
  
• Trauma injuries are predictable and can be prevented.
  
• The best trauma care is prevention.

  EL CAJON FIRE DEPARTMENT
  Monica Zech - Safety Educator/Public Information Officer - (619) 441-1615 - Vice President/Proud Board Member of TREF-Trauma Research Education Foundation www.tref.org
  
  TRAUMA SYSTEM FACTS, SAN DIEGO INFORMATION

• Trauma care is a concept born from the Korean and Vietnam wars, in which survival rates increased dramatically from World War II due to improved response time.
  
• Trauma patients who receive proper medical care within the 60-minute ?golden hour? triple their chances of survival and dramatically reduce the severity of the sustained injury.
  
• Trauma systems operate on the principle that people with severe injuries require special medical capabilities if they are to have their best chance of survival.
  
• The San Diego Trauma System is an organized community approach to trauma care. While there are trauma centers all over the world, San Diego County is unique in that its six trauma centers work together with the County Division of Emergency Medical Services to create a true system.
  
• Someone in San Diego has twice the chance of surviving a trauma injury than if the same injury occurred anywhere else in the United States.
  
• When the Trauma System was established in San Diego, the preventable death rate was 21%. Today with the Trauma System in place, San Diego?s preventable death rate has dropped to less than 1%.
  
• San Diego Trauma Care System consists of the County Department of Health Services, Division of Emergency Medical Services, other pre-hospital providers, as well as six Trauma Centers: Children?s Hospital & Health Care Center, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital, Sharp Memorial Hospital, Palomar Medical Center, and UCSD Medical Center.
  
• After the implementation of San Diego?s system, the County trauma death rate fell by 55% in the first year.
  

Over 70,000 lives have been saved in this county since the development of the San Diego Trauma System fifteen years ago.

*Proud board member of TREF - Trauma Research and Education Foundation - go to www.TREF.org