Assessment of the Potential for Increasing the Salvageability of Critical Combat Traumas Through First Responder Interventions

摘要

Five former first responders with battlefield experience as a corpsman/medic and subsequent medical experience after discharge each reviewed 100 clinical records of soldiers wounded in combat who subsequently died of their wounds. The former first responders were surveyed as to which, if any, present-day technologies and/or training, if made available to today's first responders, would make a difference in the salvageability of each trauma case reviewed. In an average of 83.8% of the cases, the first responders thought no intervention by a corpsman or medic could make a difference in salvageability; in another 7.6% of cases it was believed that any difference would be marginal or that the subsequent quality of life would be questionable. However, in 4.6% of the trauma cases, the first responders indicated that the actions of a present-day corpsman/medic might increase the salvageability of the casualty with the subsequent quality of life expected to be okay. The equipment and supplies most frequently cited to yield gains in salvageability included medical anti-shock trousers, sufficient blood replacement fluids, bag valve masks, and hemorrhage control devices. Training most prominently cited by the first responders as potentially effecting increases in salvageability included endotracheal or chest intubation, advanced trauma life support, and intravenous fluid therapy.