R Adams Cowley

R Adams Cowley (July 25, 1917 – October 27, 1991), the "Father of Trauma Medicine," was an American surgeon considered a pioneer in emergency medicine and the treatment of shock trauma. He was the founder of the United States's first trauma center at the University of Maryland, in 1958, after the US Army awarded Dr. Cowley $100,000 to study shock in people—the first award of its kind in the United States. The trauma unit at first consisted of two beds, and was later expanded to four beds. Many people called the four-bed unit the "death lab." Dr. Cowley was the creator of the "Golden Hour" concept, the period of 60 minutes or less following injury when immediate definitive care is crucial to a trauma patient's survival. He was a leader in the use of helicopters for medical evacuations of civilians, beginning in 1969, and founded the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He also founded the nation's first statewide EMS system, called MIEMSS by Executive Order of Maryland's Governor Mandel, 1972, as well as the National Study Center for Trauma and EMS, enacted by Congress in 1986 and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. He is also known for being one of the first surgeons to perform open-heart surgery and invented both a surgical clamp that bears his name and a prototype pacemaker that was used by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

As a Professor of Thoracic Surgery, University of Maryland, Cowley was the organizer of the world's first, and longest-running, "Shock Trauma" Center. After years of research which he conducted in the late 1950s, it was officially opened at the University of Maryland Hospital in 1959. The center was renamed May, 1989 "The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center of the University of Maryland Hospital." During his years in the Army, Cowley pioneered in 1957, the once-controversial, but now universally-accepted, concept of the "Golden Hour," which he defined as the fact that a severe trauma patient had 60 minutes or less from time of injury to receive specialized treatment at a Shock Trauma Unit to reduce mortality. The controversial aspect was that for countless years, injured patients had been taken, by ambulance, to the nearest hospital to die. To accomplish his goal, Dr. Cowley delegated, and shared responsibility for, Trauma Medicine with such hospitals throughout the state of Maryland as the Johns Hopkins Hospital's Pediatric Trauma Center, the Curtis Hand Center of Union Memorial Hospital, and the state burn center at Bayview Hospital. Cowley also organized the "Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services," the first statewide coordinated EMS system of care in The United States. In 1969, he started the first injured "civilian" helicopter transport service, with assistance of the Maryland State Police Aviation Division. With over 400 published professional articles, chapters, books and white papers to his credit, Dr. Cowley was a pioneer in raising awareness of trauma prevention. In 1986, at Cowley's request and with the support of Maryland Senator Mathias, Ronald Reagan, the then President of the United States, signed the act authorizing the establishment of "The National Center For The Study of Trauma and Emergency Medical Services" and recognizing, as its founder and first director, Dr. R Adams Cowley. This center, still in operation as of early April 2015, is located at the University of Maryland. The University of Utah, which honored Dr. Cowley as one of Utah's most famous legends, requested and received the collection of his personal and professional papers.

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