Congressman Lamar Smith, Twenty First Congressional
District of Texas
(WASHINGTON) – Congressman Lamar Smith today announced that $2.5 million for the National Trauma Institute (NTI) in San Antonio was included at his request in the FY2010 Defense Appropriations bill and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The funding will be used to develop techniques to manage non-compressible hemorrhage following combat injury. Studies show that non-compressible hemorrhage from injuries to the torso is the leading cause of potentially survivable deaths of American troops.
“According to the Institute for Surgical Research, mitigation of battlefield injury and hemorrhage is the highest priority of U.S. military trauma surgeons,” said Smith. “Many of the problems associated with such injuries are potentially solvable and can be transferred between military and civilian care to save numerous lives.”
“We're grateful for this federal support of trauma research, which we believe will lead to better outcomes for people suffering from trauma, whether here at home or in combat abroad," said Sharon Smith, executive director of the National Trauma Institute. “Trauma injuries and deaths are at epidemic levels in the United States, and the research projects we will be able to fund, as a result of this grant, will improve our ability to reduce the rates of death and disability due to trauma.”
The National Trauma Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to the funding and development of research addressing trauma injury in the United States. Though trauma is at epidemic levels in the United States, many Americans are unaware that trauma is so pervasive. Car accidents, domestic violence, assaults, and natural disasters all contribute to the nation’s current levels of trauma injury and death.
More than 170,000 of these trauma victims die each year, making it the leading cause of death for Americans under age 44. What’s more, these figures don’t include the numbers of American soldiers overseas, all of whom are at increased risk of trauma.
