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Trauma’s lifesaving legacy
Twenty years after the Waikato Trauma Service was established following the death of a young man whose injuries exposed shortcomings in trauma care, former staff, patients and supporters gathered to celebrate a service that saves lives. Mary Anne Gill was there.
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Waikato Hospital’s emergency department where most of the region’s trauma patients first arrive before admission.
hen Grant Christey talks about the Waikato Trauma Service, he could easily focus on the numbers. There are plenty of them. More than 50,000 trauma admissions to Waikato Hospital over two decades. More than 100,000 records in a world-class trauma registry. An estimated 640 lives saved. But for Christey, the numbers only tell part of the story. The Te Awamutu-born surgeon grew up in Hamilton, studied
medicine at the University of Otago, gained specialist trauma experience in Australia and returned home to the Waikato determined to improve care for severely injured patients. Twenty years after helping establish the service, he stood among former colleagues, patients and supporters last month celebrating a milestone few thought possible when it all began. The service traces its beginnings to Samuel Thomas Laffey, a 22-year-old Auckland University
student who fell from a cliff at Aratiatia, north of Taupō, in 2003. Transferred to Waikato Hospital, he later died from complications considered potentially preventable. A coroner’s recommendation prompted Waikato District Health Board (DHB) to rethink how trauma care was delivered. At the time Auckland had New Zealand’s only dedicated trauma service. Creating another was a bold move. The DHB backed the idea and Christey helped drive it forward.
The beginnings were humble. There was one nurse, Jenny Dorrian. One surgeon. One fellow. Three desks. One computer. A makeshift office in what Christey jokingly remembers as a pink corridor. Dorrian, now retired and living in Whitianga, returned for the anniversary celebration. What the small team lacked in resources, they made up for in vision. The new service would focus on the whole patient, not just repairing injuries.
“We started with an ethos that was dedicated to the whole patient,” Christey says. That philosophy became the foundation of everything that followed. The Waikato Trauma Service grew into the regional hub for trauma care across the Midland Health region - Te Manawa Taki - and became New Zealand’s only verified Level One Trauma Centre. Along the way, it cared for patients like William Pike. CO NT I NU ED O N PAGE 2
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