Originally Released: March 27, 2000
Contact: Gwen Fariss Newman, gnewman@umm.edu, 410-328-8919
Ellen Beth Levitt, eblevitt@umm.edu, 410-328-8919

SHOCK TRAUMA GALA CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES

On Saturday, April 15, more than 1,000 people will applaud the heroic efforts of the more than 35,000 emergency medical services providers statewide who pull together to make the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore a world-renowned leader in caring for those with critical injuries.

This year's Shock Trauma Gala will celebrate 30 years of saving lives and salute the founder of the Shock Trauma System, Dr. R Adams Cowley. The gala also will honor an elaborate network of caregivers across the state who cover more than 11,000 square miles around the clock to deliver a 96 percent survival rate at the Shock Trauma Center.

The gala will provide a history lesson of sorts as guests hear the heroic efforts of Dr. Cowley, a pioneering physician who developed the first clinical shock trauma unit in the nation in the late 1950s -- with a mere two beds; who negotiated to have military helicopters fly patients in for swift, immediate care in 1968; and who oversaw the birth of the nation's first statewide EMS system in 1973. In 1969, the shock trauma unit had expanded into a five-story, 32-bed Center for the Study of Trauma. Dr. Cowley's concept of providing vital care during the first hour after a severe injury, "the golden hour," serves as the basis for trauma care around the world. Dr. Cowley died in 1991.

"Our mission is very simple," says John Ashworth, director of the Shock Trauma Center and chief operating officer of the University of Maryland Medical Center. "Saving lives. That has not changed in 30 years."

The black-tie event also will dramatically spotlight the success stories of today in a Heroes Award Ceremony that recognizes the enormous amount of energy and professionalism that goes into each and every rescue.

Last Memorial Day weekend, more than 30 rescue workers spent three hours extricating a man whose mini-van had been struck by a cement truck in Baltimore. The victim was responsive, as was his 5-year-old son, a passenger in the vehicle. But it was swift care - and teamwork -- that saved the father's life.

That same weekend, a 19-year-old woman was injured in another motor vehicle crash in Carroll County. Seated in the backseat, she, too, was trapped - but unable to communicate with rescue workers. Flown into the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, she received immediate emergency care.

After spending more than two weeks receiving state-of-the-art care in the trauma center, both patients were able to return home.

Approximately 6,800 people will be treated at the Shock Trauma Center this year - 40 percent of them injured in motor vehicle crashes, 30 percent hurt in falls and other recreational and industrial incidents and 20 percent as victims of violence. Due to technological advances, streamlined approaches and the ability to non-surgically treat many conditions that would have required surgeries before, the center maintains an excellent success rate in a time of rapid growth.

Says Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., physician-in-chief of the Shock Trauma Center, "Nothing was impossible to Dr. Cowley. He wanted the critically ill and injured to survive and he moved mountains to make it possible. So do we."

Those interested in purchasing tickets to the gala may call 410-328-6064. Tickets cost $200 per person and include all festivities, 6:30 p.m.-midnight, at the Towson Center. Those attending the fundraising gala will meet the state's dedicated emergency care givers whose teamwork and quick response have made Maryland's EMS efforts a shining success.

"The gala is an opportunity for us to pay tribute and show our support for the hard work of all the people who stand ready every day to save the lives of people injured by trauma," says Frank Kelly, Chairman of the Shock Trauma Center Board of Visitors. "It is comforting to know that, as Maryland residents, we have the finest and best-coordinated trauma system in the nation."

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This page was last updated on: March 12, 2008.