Future Trends in Trauma Care: Through the Lens of the Wounded How Lessons from the Battlefield May Be Used at Home

The coordinated terrorist attacks of 2001 thrust the United States and its allies to war. Through an evolving battlefield, the paradigm of large fixed medical facilities advanced to become nimble surgical and resuscitative platforms, able to provide care far forward. Innovations like tactical combat casualty care, evacuation, fresh whole-blood administration, freeze-dried plasma, and forward surgical care military medicine helped reduce combat mortality to its lowest levels in history. Through the account of a young wounded marine wounded in Iraq, this article examines how innovations on the battlefield saved casualties and explores how these techniques may be applied at home.