Trauma strikes unexpectedly — anyone at any time. Traumatic injury is the leading cause of death for those under 40 years old.
Fortunately, trauma centers that specialize in caring for the significantly injured patient, organized trauma systems that bring the injured patient to the hospital that can optimally care for them, and strong injury prevention programs have significantly reduced the deaths from trauma.
San Diego County is a well-recognized trauma system of six hospitals which function as trauma centers. There are five adult trauma centers, and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is the trauma center for children up to their 15th birthday. Not every hospital in San Diego has the capability to take care of the significantly injured patient, so trauma care is organized to bring injured patients to the appropriate trauma center.
Trauma centers care for injured patients every day and every hour with the same high standard of care. Each center is reviewed by a national organization (The American College of Surgeons) and must meet certain standards in order to be designated a trauma center.
Rady Children’s provides this high standard of care to pediatric trauma patients. In addition, we have a very active injury prevention program.
Most pediatric trauma patients do not require operations to heal but do require highly trained healthcare providers to vigilantly monitor their recovery.