Every second counts during a trauma alert. “Having a trauma center is huge. It means that if you or I or one of our loved ones gets injured, you have a place locally where they will have their injuries addressed and potentially their life saved,” said Trauma Medical Director Dr. Maria Alfaro.

The trauma center serves the most complex and lifethreatening cases. They most commonly see blunt trauma from falls, motor vehicle and motorcycle crashes. “You really have no idea and I think that's what's so exciting about trauma is that you know you're here 247 and your goal is to help save a life and help get that patient better and bring them back to their family and back to their community,” said Dr. Alfaro.

Lee Health has had a trauma center since 1994. In 2022, it was relocated to Gulf Coast Medical Center. “It's nice to have a nice big space because it allows for the team to move around and for us to bring whatever we need to the bedside more readily and easily,” said Dr. Alfaro.

Lee Health’s level 2 trauma center is the only one between Sarasota and Miami. The specialty trained team is there 24/7, ready for anything. “From the nurses to the ER techs to the radiology techs to the nurses up in the unit. Everybody works together as a big team to make this happen. It's a whole team effort,” said Dr. Alfaro.

As Southwest Florida grows, so does the trauma registry. In 2023, they treated more than 4,500 patients, a new record. “And so that is my goal every day, day in day out, is to treat every patient with respect, do the best we can to save the lives we and if I or my loved one ended up in this hospital that this is the place where they should have gone and that they were treated the way they should have,” said Dr. Alfaro. You can learn more by searching for trauma care on leehealth.org.



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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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