Dr. David Mulder, renowned trauma specialist, honoured by MUHC

Dr. David Mulder might be best known as the doctor who tends to concussions, bruises and sprains for the Montreal Canadiensa path he embarked on by tending to injured McGill Redmen hockey players way back in 1963.

But that might change now that the Saskatchewan-born surgeon has a trauma centre named after him.

McGill University Health Centre has renamed its trauma centre at the Montreal General Hospital the Dr. David S. Mulder Trauma Centre not in recognition of the Saskatchewan-born surgeon's abilities to fix the ligaments that help score goals, but for his contribution to trauma care.

Mulder was one of the driving forces behind the restructuring of trauma care in Quebec.

In the 1980s, he launched a campaign to establish a new approach to trauma carein Quebec after learning that half of allpatients brought to Quebec hospitals after serious accidentsdid not survive.

"We were alarmed and embarrassed that the mortality level was 50 per cent," he told CBC News. "We thought we had made a mistake."

Health-care authorities agreedrestructuring was neededafter learning of the shocking data, and soon a new system of trauma care was in place.

The new system included optimal patient care, as well asteaching and research. Also, fewer patients were forced to transfer between hospitals.

After the reform, Quebec's 50 per cent extreme-trauma mortality rate gradually dropped to 20 per cent, then 10 per cent. It now sits at five per cent, Muldersaid.

He noted that a patient who recently arrived in the emergency room with a stab wound in his neck was met by 14 doctors and medical staff.

"That's the difference between life and death," Mulder said. "Now we're well ahead of the game. I think we compare well with any medical centre in the United States."

Mulder said that he would still like to see more reforms made to the trauma response system, including the establishment of a helicopter ambulance system,available in many other places across North America.

Mulder, speaking at an event in his honour Tuesday, thanked his colleagues and said he was flattered by the renaming of the MUHC trauma centre.

"I'm overwhelmed and humbled beyond belief. It's an incredible day for me."