The National Trauma Institute (NTI), a non-profit organization dedicated to funding trauma research in the United States, launched a powerful awareness and giving campaign in the heart of New York City today. While the images in the 15-second message may disturb some, trauma surgeon and NTI chairperson Dr. Timothy Fabian said, "We can't ignore the bloody truth—traumatic injury kills more than 170,000 people each year, not counting our soldiers overseas. Action is needed."
In a city that witnessed one of the most significant traumatic events in our nation's history, NTI hopes to strike a chord with "Stop the Bleeding," a call to support vastly underfunded trauma research in hemorrhage, or massive bleeding. Noncompressible hemorrhage (that which cannot be stopped with pressure) is the primary cause of preventable death for people who have sustained a traumatic injury and is the Army's highest medical priority.
Sharon Smith, NTI's executive director, pointed out that federal funding for trauma research is dismal compared to that for diseases with far lower rates of death than traumatic injury. "Traumatic injury kills four times more people than breast cancer, for instance," she said.
According to the CDC, for every $3.51 in federal funding for HIV research, $1.65 is spent on cancer and just 10 cents on trauma. "The research investment in HIV has had a significant impact, reducing the mortality rate from 21% in 1995 to 1% in 2006, and today fewer than 15,000 a year succumb to the disease," Smith said. "Once we can achieve significant research support for traumatic injury, we may see meaningful or even similar reductions in fatalities."
NTI's Stop the Bleeding campaign message will run hourly from July 15 through October 15 on the CBS Superscreen in Times Square, and asks people to text TRAUMA to 20222 to donate $10 for hemorrhage research.
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