On today’s episode, we chat with Dr. Brodie Nolan, an emergency physician and trauma team leader at St. Michael’s Hospital (one of Canada’s largest trauma centres), and a transport medicine physician for ORNGE.

We discuss what trauma is, and how we define hemorrhagic shock. We discuss that trauma triad of death, and why it’s important to get these patients to a lead trauma centre.

These patients ultimately need blood products, so Dr. Nolan walks us through blood/fluid resuscitation, as well as the massive hemorrhage protocol.

Lastly, we cover the prehospital care of these patients: the field trauma triage and air ambulance utilization standards; A-B-Cs (the importance of de-prioritizing intubation and allowing for permissive HYPOtension); the on-scene interventions we should and shouldn’t perform; and what the future looks like for the care of these patients