Hurt

July 18, 2016
Pediatric surgeon Musemeche (Small: Life and Death on the Front Lines of Pediatric Surgery) vividly brings to life the evolution of trauma care: “a world of its own” focused on the 2.8 million people hospitalized annually with severe injuries. The fast-paced development of this field of medicine, fueled by a startling 1966 report on accidental death and disabilities, has been driven by such little-known but groundbreaking pioneers as epidemiologist Sue Baker, whose 1984 publication of the Injury Fact Book documented the “magnitude of the injury threat to public safety”; Phil Hallen, who created the blueprint for a trained ambulance service; R. Adams Cowley, whose understanding of the life-or-death first “golden hour” after injury led to the creation of specialized trauma-care units; Charles Drew, whose blood-banking system helped “change the course of history”; and the military surgeons in Iraq who both advanced the treatment of gunshot victims and scientific understanding of the brain’s ability to heal. Musemeche’s fast-paced medical history mixes the gritty reality of treating life-threatening injuries—including her own heart-pounding experiences as surgeon—with an unfettered optimism about what trauma care can now promise: an assurance that most people will survive even a devastating injury.