Hurt: The Inspiring, Untold Story of Trauma Care

by Catherine Musemeche

Overview

Trauma is a disease of epidemic proportions that preys on the young, killing more Americans up to age thirty-seven than all other afflictions combined. Every year an estimated 2.8 million people are hospitalized for injuries and more than 180,000 people die. We take for granted that no matter how or where we are injured, someone will call 911 and trained first responders will show up to insert IVs, stop the bleeding, and swiftly deliver us to a hospital staffed by doctors and nurses with the expertise necessary to save our lives. None of this happened on its own. Told through the eyes of a surgeon who has flown on rescue helicopters, resuscitated patients in trauma centers in Houston and Chicago, and operated on hundreds of trauma victims of all ages, Hurt takes us on a tour of the advancements in injury treatment from the battlefields of the Civil War to the state-of-the-art trauma centers of today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611687965
Publisher:	University Press of New England
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CATHERINE MUSEMECHE, MD, is a pediatric surgeon and former professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical School. She is the author of Small: Life and Death on the Front Lines of Pediatric Surgery.

Table of Contents

Introduction • PART I: TRANSPORT • Along for the Ride • The Lessons of War • The Weakest Link • Learning to Fly • Rescue Warriors • PART II: TREATMENT • Hurt • The Color of Blood • A Tower of Terror • Off-Road MD • PART III: POST-TRAUMA • The Save • Our Plastic Brains • The Trauma Within • The Road Back • Losing a Limb, Finding a Cause • Acknowledgments • Notes • Index

What People are Saying About This

Paul Ruggieri

“Hurt is a fascinating journey through the history of trauma care in this country. Musemeche's unique ability to weave moving, personal stories with intriguing facts takes this book well beyond a great read. It is an education in the human spirit.”

John Raffensperger

“Dr. Musemeche deserves accolades for writing Hurt. It should become a best seller, be in every doctor’s library and required reading for students and residents.”

Sue Baker MPH

"This is an amazing book—absolutely spellbinding, from a powerful writer. Dr. Musemeche has done a super job."

R. Lawrence Moss

“Like an expert translator who makes a work of literature accessible to people who don’t speak its language, Dr. Musemeche provides us all with a vivid view into the fascinating history of treating the injured.”

Editorial Reviews

07/18/2016
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. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

“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.”—Publishers Weekly


“Hurt isn’t simply another life-and-death-on-the-streets compendium; it will entice you with the macabre, then take you back to school. . . . The writing is first-rate, and the stories should engage both medical professionals and amateurs who are fascinated by the process of putting the appallingly injured back together.”—EMS World


“A fast-paced medical narrative perfect for people who like nonfiction . . . written in a way that’s as gripping as fiction.”
—Austin Woman


“Hurt is filled with astonishing stories that will inspire individuals from all walks of life, especially those in the medical field. . . . Hurt succeeds in telling its stories through the experiences of doctors and health care professionals as well as through the eyes of suffering patients and civilians.”

—The New Physician

From the Publisher