The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

When I was a young physician, we talked with almost religious zeal about the "Golden Hour." Early on, this principally focused on the idea that within the first hour after an injury, a patient needed to receive definitive treatment in order to maximize the chances of survival and recovery. We usually interpreted this to mean that the patient needed to be in the hands of the trauma surgeon before this hour was up. We took ATLS classes so we could make sure that the patient in our emergency room got the best treatment we non-surgeons could provide, until the surgeon could take over.

Of course...