If you’re banged up in a car crash somewhere in the Free State or if you’re shot on the street, chances are you’ll be transported quickly -- maybe by helicopter -- to the R Adams Cowley Shock-Trauma Center at the University of Maryland. The sixty-five hundred badly injured patients admitted there each year get the highest level of trauma care in the U.S. But even though it’s the heart of Maryland’s exceptional Emergency Medical Services, the Shock-Trauma center has struggled for money.
That changed this week. We talk with Shock-Trauma’s top doctor, Dr. Thomas Scalea, about how the center's funding situation has improved dramatically.