10 March 2005	Thursday	28 Muharram 1426

LAHORE, March 9: With rising number of road accidents and gun-related violence, the trauma has emerged as the top killer disease. On a single day last month, the Mayo Hospital south surgical unit's doctors had treated 85 stray bullet injuries.

Considering the situation, the King Edward Medical College is organizing trauma courses to equip postgraduate trainees to deal effectively with life-threatening situations in emergency room.

Course coordinator Prof Dr Arshad Cheema says the KEMC surgery department has planned three-day trauma courses, the first to be held from April 26. He says the free-of-cost course will comprise 12 interactive lectures and as many skills stations.

Prof Cheema says the trauma has become the leading cause of death in the first four decades of life in every country of the world, including the US and the UK. For every trauma death, he said, three to four more persons got maimed. "So it is not only a major cause of death, it is a great disabler as well," he added.

He said the trauma was affecting the most productive members of society. Apart from producing orphans, he said, it took away the earning capacity of many survivors. He said social and economic implications of preventing injuries and promptly transporting and treating the victims of trauma were enormous.

He said the deaths from injuries followed a tri-model pattern. Immediate deaths occur within minutes before arriving to emergency room and only treatment for them is prevention through education. Early deaths within hours occur from life-threatening injuries.

Whether the patient lives or dies after injury, he said, depended upon the action taken by the doctors during the first hour of arrival in emergency room - "The Golden Hour." He said the main thrust of trauma care was on the early management of trauma during this golden hour.

Prof Cheema said the potentially life-threatening injuries caused late deaths over ensuing days from sepsis and multi-organ failure. These slow killers also need to be recognized and managed early to prevent morbidity, he added.

According to the Punjab Emergency and Ambulance Services (PEAS), the Rescue 1122, the 14 ambulances' fleet, had transported 2,278 traffic accidents to different hospitals during the last four months.

The ambulances fleet, stationed at six points in the city, had also attended 1,422 medical emergencies, 126 fire emergencies, 16 building collapse and two bomb blasts during the period.