Trauma Funding

Many diseases have spokesmen. Trauma does not. Whether it is prostate cancer, breast cancer, or AIDS there are high profile people pushing for funding. Not so for trauma. I understand that most victims want to forget about the trauma and get on with their lives. Now, we have a very strong advocate in Bob Woodruff. The ABC Evening News anchor was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq last year. And he is talking about his trauma. He suffered a bad TBI. He has made a wonderful documentary called To Iraq and Back. He talks about his own personal story but also includes the problems that many of our vets are having with TBI.

The Walter Reed story is frontline news right now. This is the time for trauma. We need to contact our congressmen. We need to ask for significant funding for trauma. Physicians, nurses, victims and their families all need to become involved. Now is the time.

I agree with you on this one. We are the only level 1 trauma center in the tri-state area. And the majority of the patients that we serve are underprivileged without insurance. We do get funding from the state, but it still isn't enough. The states that we take patients from usually pay $12 million a year, but last I heard, they were only paying $1 million.