ORLANDO, Fla. – Eight years after the tragedy at Pulse nightclub, Orlando Health is unveiling its newly expanded trauma center at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
On June 12, 2016, multiple victims came to ORMC in need of care, the only Level 1 trauma center in the area that happened to be just a few blocks away. All 35 victims who made it to the operating room survived.
Now, the trauma center is new and improved — based on the input from staff who treated the Pulse survivors.
Dr. Joseph Ibrahim, the director of surgery for Orlando Health Medical Group, was the first person who was called in during those early morning hours.
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“I remember coming in to the first, the old trauma room,” said Dr. Ibrahim. “It was eerily quiet. Quiet walk from the garage, walked my usual route, and walked into the trauma room, and clearly, it was much different. I’ll never forget the very first patient I saw: a large gunshot wound to the chest, and then looking and seeing the room essentially full of other patients.”
Dr. Tracy Zito, the trauma medical director at ORMC, said the tragedy made them realize how they could make things better in the future.
“It brought out the immediate understanding that we want to be able to have a larger capability that is the same,” said Dr. Zito. “So instead of plugging and playing other ER beds in the emergency room when there’s a big surge, being able to bring these people into the trauma bay where we have all of our equipment and everything standard right there.”
The expanded trauma center is now double the size of the old one, which was designed more than 30 years ago. It also has surge space, and staff can add ten more treatment areas if needed.
“It really allows us to do a much better job, allows much more visualization of what’s going on with each patient because we’ve got bigger monitors. They’re much more visible, easier to hook up,” Dr. Ibrahim said. “Just everything is updated. And on top of that, we have more room. We have the tools that we need at our fingertips.”
Dr. Ibrahim says it’s so important when every second counts.
“It’s not just surgery. It’s not just the emergency department. It’s things that you wouldn’t even think about, like environmental services: how you get those trauma rooms clean quicker so you can bring more patients in,” said Dr. Ibrahim. “And that’s not just important on a mass casualty event; that’s important for the day-to-day. This past weekend was a very busy time in the trauma center, and we had, we were pretty much at capacity.”
“It’s what we do every day, and most of the public isn’t aware of the, you know, four gunshot wounds that will come in at the same time on a given night that we take care of,” said Dr. Zito.
The updated trauma center has been in use for about a month now. The expansion is part of Orlando Health’s $25 million revamp of ORMC’s entire emergency department. The full renovation should be complete early next year, and it was paid for entirely by donations.
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