Winter 2017 Edition

Thanks to the use of the REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) device, trauma patients who have impending cardiac arrest from bleeding can now have better outcomes. That’s exactly what happened in Michael Cassidy’s case, when Dr. Michelle McNutt, a surgeon affiliated with Red Duke Trauma Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center , and a multidisciplinary medical team employed the lifesaving technique on the young father who had arrived at the Red Duke Trauma Institute with terrible injuries.

For Houston Independent School District Nurse Martha Allbright, learning firsthand how to stop traumatic uncontrolled bleeding from the Red Duke Trauma Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, affiliated trauma surgeons, and Life Flight nurses and paramedics, was more than educational: It was confidence building. “These are experts from the frontlines who deal with major trauma situations every day,” Allbright said. “To practice blood-loss prevention techniques under their instruction reinforces how school nurses can make a difference in a crisis. God forbid we ever face this kind of situation, but if we do, it will help us be prepared.”

Over the past few months, 10 Emergency Centers across the System participated in standardized preparedness exercises comprised of two parts, a functional tabletop drill followed by a large-scale disaster exercise, replete with more than 350 volunteers pretending to be patients with realistic looking injuries, made-up patient histories and lab results. The exercises also included participation from first responders and even other hospitals across the Greater Houston region.