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Tue, 05 Mar 2002 22:29:28 +0000

OK - the 'humor' may not be best on a public stage, but I would be a little
hesitant in trashing the rest of the protocols. They are certainly not what
I would use in London - BUT in the context that Baraguanath and Joberg
General are operating these are pretty reasonable. For example, no
ventilation for anyone with a GCS of 5 or less would not be acceptable in
the UK, but within a high volume third world trauma system with inadequate
resources this is a realistic protocol. They have what we in London would
term a major incident happening every day of the year. Think battlefield or
major incident triage and treatment to understand their protocols.
We have undertaken exchanges of trainees with this unit in the past, as they
have an experience and knowledge of the disease of trauma that we could all
learn from.
The protocols are not 'amusing' - they are disturbing for anyone involved in
first world trauma care, and make me glad that I am not making such hard
decisions due to inadequate resources every day.
Tim.

> Caesar,
> 
> Couldn't agree more.  And you know, I might be more tolerant if it was funny
> (I can forgive quite a lot for a good laugh).  It's significant that their
> published trauma protocols are at least as amusing.
> 
> I took a moment to follow the "contact us" link, and offered my opinion.
> Perhaps others will do the same.  Having been occasionally and unknowingly
> insensitive (yup, me), I'm willing to believe that these people just haven't
> paused to consider the impact of their thoughtless behavior.  For those who
> wish to see it, I encourage haste: I expect the link to disappear shortly.
> Call me naive.
> 
> At the very least, it's a fine example of how NOT to construct a
> professional-appearing web site.
> 
> Pret Bjorn
> Bangor, ME USA
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caesar ursic [mailto:cmursic@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 1:05 PM
> To: trauma-list@trauma.org
> Subject: "when to shoot a patient"
> 
> 
> One finds the damnedest things on the internet. I know
> this might be considered muckraking by some, but so be
> it.  One thing is for sure - if I (or most any of the
> participants on this list) had posted this on our
> official institutional websites, we could kiss our
> jobs goodbye.
> 
> Download the file labeled "when to shoot a patient" to
> see what I mean.
> 
> http://www.wits.ac.za/trauma/tra004.htm
> 
> C.M. Ursic, M.D.
> Dept. of Surgery
> UCSF-East Bay
> Oakland, California / USA
> 

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