Time is of the essence in treating people who have suffered this kind of injury. Someone whose airways are blocked will die within six minute unless treated. The survival time for collapsed lungs is up to 15 minutes, and for severe bleeding is 25-30 minutes.
âEmbarrassingâ absence
Under the plan, patients who are within 45 minutes of the two major trauma centres will be brought there for treatment; otherwise they will go to one of a network of trauma units for stabilisation and possibly onwards to Cork or the Mater.
Dr Synnott describes the lack of a major trauma network up to now as embarrassing. Inter-hospital communication results in vital time being wasted. At its most extreme, a patient with multiple injuries might have to be brought to different hospitals for treatment â Tallaght for the pelvis, the Mater for the spine, Beaumont for the brain. A rock climber from Dublin who falls off a cliff in Mayo, is treated locally and then transferred to the capital, migh