The history of paediatric trauma care in Cape Town.

Until the late 60s and early 70s of the last century, medical trauma care received very little attention in most communities or from health care providers. Emergency medical care became a focus of widespread and continuing attention following publication in 1966 of the landmark report of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Research Council (NRC): Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society. Morticians provided up to 50% of prehospital transport before that time, perhaps largely because hearses were the only available vehicles to accommodate stretchers.3 The need for and success of emergency trauma care was firmly established by military surgeons on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam.