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t m c » p u l s e | a u g u s t 2 0 1 4 19 t m c » p u l s e | a u g u s t 2 0 1 4 hospital in a fraction of the time it would take for ground transport, each helicopter is fully equipped to give the medical team the tools to provide life-saving care. "We have added a number of capa- bilities to the aircraft in order to better care for our patients by doing some of these procedures in the air, on the air- craft, on the route back to the level one trauma center," said Flanagan. " Holcomb, vice chair, professor and chief of UTHealth's Division of Acute Care Surgery, served as a top military trauma surgeon for the U.S. Army. Since joining the Texas Trauma Institute, he has helped add blood products into the Life Flight helicopters, allowing trauma patients experiencing significant blood loss to be given transfusions en route to the hospital. Holcomb is just one of many veterans serving on the Memorial Hermann team, and sees the oppor- tunity for battlefield trauma care and training to translate into better care for the city's trauma patients. "We really try to take the lessons learned over the last decade from being in Iraq, Afghanistan, and implement those on the trauma side. That's a big part of what Life Flight does," explained Holcomb. "With tourniquets, blood products, hemostatic dressings, warm- ing of fluids on the helicopter…we've spent a lot of time taking those lessons learned overseas and trying to benefit the trauma patient population in the greater Houston area." In order to provide the greatest benefit to the community, Life Flight's services are available as needed, often at the hospital's own expense. Since no patients are denied life-saving transportation based on their ability to pay, Memorial Hermann has a number of community outreach programs designed to help avoid the need for trauma care. Bicycle helmet, water safety and new driver programs are designed to help inform the public about how to avoid the more common types of critical injuries that the trauma team sees each year. A high school outreach program, called Shattered Dreams, gives students a realistic look at the conse- quences of driving under the influence. The students spend the night in the hospital, view a transport by air ambu- lance and hearse, and are ultimately asked to promise their families that they will never drive while intoxicated. As much as Memorial Hermann-TMC hopes that these preventative measures help decrease the number of trauma calls they receive-they will always be standing by, ready to transport patients back to the medical center. "When Memorial Hermann made the commitment years ago to bring the helicopter into the community back in 1976, it truly was a commitment from the hospital and the board of trustees at that time that the program was for the community, to help the community," said Flanagan. "Outreach programs are important, because although we are here to take care of those injuries, what we would really rather do is get out in front of the injuries and teach preven- tion. And that is really a commitment that Memorial Hermann-TMC took on in our philosophy as a trauma center."