The end of the 'Golden Hour' and the transformation of U.S. military combat medicine

The end of the 'Golden Hour' and the transformation of U.S. military combat medicine

During the post-9/11 wars, the US military came as close to perfecting near-immediate trauma care on the battlefield as the chaos of combat would allow.  No matter how a soldier was injured, if a medic was nearby, the odds were in their favor. Air superiority, MEDEVAC helicopters, Combat Support Hospitals, and Forward Surgical Teams meant combat casualties had a good chance to meet “the golden hour” — the race to get a trauma patient into an ope…