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Wednesday, July 11, 2018

The Golden Hour is a Guideline and Not a Rule

The "Golden Hour" that says casualties have a much better rate of survival if they get to a real medical facility and actual doctors within an hour is misinterpreted, placing troops' lives at risk, according to Col. Jay Johannigman, a former Air Force surgeon who is director of the university’s Institute for Military Medicine.

I didn't realize this rule risks lives by misinterpretation to narrowly focus on getting wounded troops to hospitals fast:

The 60-minute rule is “a myth,” Johannigman said, suggesting the Army suffers under the “burden of the misunderstanding about the golden hour,” which he described as getting wounded to a combat surgical facility because it would have a variety of lifesaving capabilities critical to survival. Some of those lifesaving procedures can be done closer to the battle, such as using a tourniquet to stop bleeding, providing blood transfusions and opening airways, to gain more than an hour to receive advanced care.

I guess I rather assumed that the Golden Hour didn't mean you deny immediate life-saving treatment near the front, given that we have trained and equipped far more troops to provide lifesaving "patches" near the front.

For God's sake, don't deny troops immediate treatment to stabilize a wounded patient near the front in order to get them moving to meet the one-hour standard!