ORLANDO, Fla. — Only Eyewitness 9 was allowed inside the trauma center at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the most critical patients in the region, those in true life-or-death situations, are treated.
The scene in the trauma center is much different than the emergency room.
Last month, we were first to obtain a letter sent to donors in an effort to generate $10 million for the expansion project, which the hospital administration is calling critical.
John Bozard, president of the Orlando Health Foundation, told Channel 9’s Daralene Jones it was the Pulse nightclub shooting that shed light on the need for a trauma center.
“Pulse was the tragedy that brought all of us together to understand the value of having a trauma center, but especially so close to where the shooting happened," Bozard said. "But you know, every day, every day we have an average of 200 patients a day coming into our trauma center. So it's not just a one-time occurrence."
The trauma director, Dr. Joseph Ibrahim, gave Channel 9 a tour of the trauma center.
He pointed out the walls that will be knocked down for the expansion, which will more than double the size of the existing 1,250-square-foot space.
“There’s just so many more things and the technology is not what it was in the 1990s -- we have so many more devices we can use to stop bleeding for a trauma patient,” Ibrahim said.
The hospital expects to fund the construction solely on private donations, but there are plans to offer an opportunity for local government entities to support the project.
The funding will help pay for additional patient bays and upgraded equipment, which hasn’t been changed out since the 1990s.
There are six bays in the trauma area, but it's not unusual on a typical day for the hospital to receive more patients than that, officials said.
This forces the hospital to utilize space on the other side of the nurses' station in the emergency room area.
This requires doctors to shuttle between the spaces with critical lifesaving equipment.
On the night of the Pulse shooting, hospital staff members were forced to cram stretchers in the trauma area, which was intended for only six patients.
“Ten million dollars is a big number, but we believe there are people in this community who will come forward and be willing to help," Bozard said.
Orlando Regional Medical Center was built around 1990, when the volume was fewer than 2,000 trauma patients each year.
With the continued growth in Central Florida, more than 5,100 trauma patients were treated last year.
"While the hospital has kept up with some technology, it's not capable of storing some of the larger lifesaving devices in this space,” Ibrahim said.
Bozard said he expected to be able to generate half the money needed for the project in time to start construction by early next year.