Memorial Health's Level 1 trauma center recently added a mass casualty cart to its inventory of lifesaving equipment. The mass casualty cart includes enough supplies to provide treatment for 30 patients in the event of a life-threatening emergency. The cart was funded by a grant from the National Emergency Medicine Association.
"What this cart will save us is time, and time is often the most critical thing in dealing with a mass casualty situation," said James Dunne, M.D., chief of trauma services at Memorial. "We are already stocked and ready with trauma supplies, but having a large supply instantly available on a single cart lets us respond even faster should we ever face a large-scale disaster."
The deployment of the cart is just the latest in a series of steps Memorial Health has undertaken this year to help save lives in the event of a mass casualty event. The trauma team has provided bleed-control kits and Stop the Bleed training to police officers and first responders with Savannah Police Department, Savannah Fire and Emergency Services, Southside Fire/EMS, and Savannah Hilton Head International Airport. A number of schools in Chatham and surrounding counties have also received Stop the Bleed training. Stop the Bleed is a federally endorsed campaign to educate as many people as possible about ways to control traumatic bleeding while awaiting emergency responders.