Trauma Talk, the Blog

JPS Health Network in Fort Worth is home to Tarrant County’s only Level I Trauma Center, dedicated to providing outstanding patient care, professional healthcare education, injury prevention, public outreach and research for the benefit of the entire community. Of the 100,000-plus patient encounters in our emergency room each year, Trauma Services cares for the most critically injured — more than 2,700 people in 2013 — serving Fort Worth and communities within a 200-mile portion of North and West Texas.

PTSD in the ICU - January 19, 2016

Survivors of traumatic events are at elevated risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD,) but the event itself isn’t always the cause. Sometimes it’s their hospital stay. “All ICU patients are at risk for PTSD,” surgeon Stephanie Joyce, MD, said at this month’s Trauma Talk. “Everything we do (to patients) in the ICU is potentially traumatic.”

Balancing Act - January 20, 2015

We in Tarrant County are fortunate to have one of the nation’s largest burn units right next door in Dallas. Dr. Brett Arnoldo, a fellow trauma surgeon and medical director of Parkland’s burn unit, was our Trauma Talk speaker today, and reviewed current best practices in trauma care for burn patients.

Most of his slides reflect the fact that burns are among the most devastating injuries — except the one at the end, which showed a young girl in a bed at Parkland, smiling happily and covered in a stunningly beautiful quilt.

  • Gandhi and Arnoldo

Street Drugs - September 24, 2014

Fort Worth’s top narcotics cop brought an ominous message to September’s Trauma Talk, our monthly lunch and lecture series. Sgt. Russell Johnson, Narcotics Unit supervisor, says emergency rooms should get ready for a big increase in patients under the influence of new street drugs.

K2 and “bath salts” are already here. Overdoses in Dallas and Austin made headlines in May. But they are not as prevalent in Texas as they are in northern states like New Hampshire, which declared a state of emergency after 44 overdoses in a 72-hour period in August. Johnson said the flow of heroin, cocaine and marijuana from Mexico is so heavy in Texas, it slows demand for alternatives. “But it’s coming. When it really hits Fort Worth, the number of ER visits is going to skyrocket,” he said. “It’s going to be worse, in my opinion,” than other street drugs.

Shattered Dreams - June 24, 2014

One thing we know for sure is that motor vehicle crashes are the LEADING cause of death for teenagers. We see it on the news all too frequently. A lot of those crashes involve alcohol and distractions. For this reason, JPS recently partnered with a local high school to show what really happens in a trauma center. On this day, after a mock crash, students arrived by ground EMS. They were hooked up to monitors and IV fluid simulation. Procedures such as CPR and lung re-expansion were simulated.

  • Patient in ambulance
  • dsc8218 - image of patients

A preventable disease - June 16, 2014

Trauma is rarely an accident. Something causes a person to be injured — and it’s usually not an accident. An accident is an event that occurs by chance. But in a motor vehicle crash, for example, something causes the collision. It could be en environmental factor, such as sleet, snow, ice or sandy soil. It could be mechanical, such as brakes not functioning properly. The driver may be impaired in some way, using drugs or alcohol, or distracted by texting or talking on the phone.

Most causes are avoidable, which is why trauma is a preventable disease.

  • DSC8024 - staff in operation room