About TraumaOne
Critical Care for Our Community
When TraumaOne began in 1983, it was the first trauma program in the state of Florida. Twenty-eight years later, it is still the only adult and pediatric Level I trauma program in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. The next closest Level I trauma programs are Shands at University of Florida, Orlando Regional Medical Center and Memorial Health University Medical Center (Savannah, Ga.).
Our qualified team consists of University of Florida trauma surgeons, nurses and others with extensive training in caring for trauma patients. Unlike other hospitals, our surgeons and other health care experts in areas such as neurosurgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedic trauma surgery and cardiothoracic surgery, to name a few, are available on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
More Than Meets the Skies
TraumaOne consists of five components:
- Trauma Center
- Flight Services
- Communications/Dispatch
- Trauma Prevention and Education
- Emergency Preparedness
Trauma Center
The Trauma Center is separate from the Emergency Department and has five designated bays to receive trauma victims. It is staffed
24 hours a day, seven days a week with health care providers specially trained in emergency, trauma and critical care. This team consists of trauma surgeons, PAs and ARNPs, nurses and other highly trained professionals.
Our primary service area includes Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. John's counties; however, TraumaOne serves a much broader area, including counties in Southeast Georgia. Motor vehicle crashes, motorcycle crashes, falls, pedestrian and other accidents account for nearly 75 percent of trauma cases each year.
Flight Services
TraumaOne flight crews consist of pilots, flight nurses and paramedics. These nurses and paramedics have extensive training and years of experience in caring for trauma patients. Conversely, the pilots have no medical background at all. This is by design. The pilots' decisions must be made purely on their aviation experience. They are not given details of an accident until after they have accepted the call and determined it is safe to fly to the scene based on FAA regulations; this practice prevents pilots from making emotional decisions.
Communications/Dispatch
The TraumaOne communications staff dispatches helicopters within a 120-mile service area. They accept all rescue calls for the hospital and notify the trauma, emergency or pediatric emergency teams of incoming patients and their conditions. Additionally, the team plays a vital role in MCIs (mass casualty incidents), serving as a link between the emergency preparedness team; Trauma Center and Emergency Department; city government; and local agencies such as police and fire and rescue departments.
Trauma Prevention and Education
Shands Jacksonville's Trauma Prevention Program began more than 20 years ago to educate children and parents on important safety topics in an effort to reduce the number and severity of injuries. Each year, 15,000-20,000 people are educated about injury prevention through lectures, mock simulations, health fairs, hands-on activities and general distribution of educational materials, helmets and car seats.
Emergency Preparedness
TraumaOne's emergency preparedness team is responsible for the safety of patients, visitors and staff throughout Shands Jacksonville's 65-acre campus during natural and man-made disasters, from hurricanes to terrorist threats. The team is also responsible for coordinating the hospital's response to any MCI with the potential to bring in a large number of patients with serious injuries. Examples include a parking garage collapse in downtown Jacksonville in November 2007 and an industrial explosion on the city's Northside just two weeks later.
A TraumaOne Miracle
Sam Bellet
Sam Bellett had just turned 16 and was a week away from starting his junior year at Mandarin High School when he was struck by an SUV while riding his bicycle to cross-country practice. It was 6:15 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2011. His family was told his injuries were life threatening.
“We sort of break down at that moment because you don’t know what to do you see your child lifeless,” said Sam’s mother Maisie Bellett.
Sam had suffered a severe brain injury, his skull was fractured, his left leg was broken and he had numerous internal injuries. Luckily, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue personnel recognized the severity of Sam’s head injury at the scene and got him to Shands Jacksonville’s Level I Trauma Center quickly. His prognosis looked good, but his body needed time to heal. Sam was put into a medically induced coma.
After spending three weeks at Shands Jacksonville and just about as long at Brooks Rehabilitation, Sam began what would be months of rehabilitation at home. Meanwhile, the start of his junior year had come and gone. Classes he would need to graduate were well under way and wouldn’t be easy to make up.
Sam had been in standard classes all his life, but near the end of his freshmen year he asked school counselor Peggy Adams if he could enroll in the AICE program, the most rigorous academic program Mandarin offered. She didn’t think he was ready. He’d never even taken an honors class. But Sam kept asking, and eventually Adams relented and he started his first AICE class.
Sam was devastated when he was told he would be returning to standard classes instead of AICE courses. “I worked so hard to be able to go into it and do it, I just wanted to get back to it,” Sam said.
So while he learned to walk again, while his fractured skull healed and while the swelling in his head subsided, Sam enrolled in virtual classes from home.
By the time classes started again at the end of January 2012, Sam was back at Mandarin and back in his AICE classes. He’s set to graduate from Mandarin with his AICE degree this June.
“I knew, I learned my lesson: you can’t tell the young man no,” said Adams.
He’s also been accepted to The Ohio State University where he plans to study science.
“The name of the game right now is determination, and Sam’s got determination,” Tepas said. “Sam will succeed.”
