A road trauma research programme at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, will examine the way in which people are injured in crashes, how they are treated and what steps can be taken to reduce the injuries to pedestrians and motorists.
In 1999, 72 trauma cases which were transferred from the western seaboard to the National Neuro-surgical Centre and Trauma Unit at Beaumont accounted for 1,000 bed days.
One of the hospital's more recent western patients was Ms Pamela Dixon (17), from Sligo, who was in her first year of a business and office information course at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) in Galway when she fell under a bus in Eyre Square.
"It was the end of January," she recalls. "I was rushed by ambulance to University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG), and was there for five days. I broke my pelvis and ruptured my bladder among other injuries."
Pamela received good treatment at UCHG's trauma unit and was then transferred to Beaumont. During her 31-day stay there, a plate was put in her pelvis. She was released in early March and is now receiving physiotherapy and recuperating at home.
"I am on crutches and getting there," she says cheerfully. She had to suspend her studies but hopes to resume in September.
Pamela was lucky. Fortunately, she had no head injuries.
"People tend to associate Beaumont with the worst, but so many of our patients come through successfully," says Mr Paraic Murray, orthopaedic trauma surgeon at the hospital. "We would like to take some preventive action to reduce the number of casualties we are dealing with, and that is why this research programme has been initiated."
The programme's objectives are: to integrate the physical crash evidence with the injuries sustained; to evaluate clinical management of serious trauma; to enhance a multi-agency approach to injury prevention and management; to establish a co-ordinated data collation framework to improve the understanding of motor vehicle kinematics in relation to injury occurring here; and to improve the outcome for trauma victims through better understanding of injury mechanisms.
Links have already been established with the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, through Prof David Marsh, and part of the project will involve further North-South co-operation.
The hospital also hopes to renew a campaign for a helipad on its grounds as a helicopter transfer is often much better for a patient than travelling a long distance by road.
This issue has already been raised by rural doctors leading the HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) campaign in the west to provide air ambulance cover on land.
Ms Maria Fitzgibbon, trauma co-ordinator at Beaumont, says the benefit of good trauma management is lives saved and the rehabilitation of trauma victims. "Early treatment of injuries has a profound effect on rehabilitation requirements and on patient outcome and quality of life," she says.
Next Sunday, as part of its fund-raising campaign, the centre has enlisted the support of Superquinn for a fun-cycle around Dublin Bay, from Sutton Cross to Bray, Co Wicklow.
For more information the freephone number is Fun Cycle (1800 386 29253) or Website www.funcycle.com
