-Skip and Irvene

Another doctor who came quickly came on board early on was a noted peripheral vascular surgeon in Lincoln named Paul “Skip” Collicott, who also happened to be a member of the distinguished American College of Surgeons.  Dad and Ron both knew him personally and as a colleague, and also knew that he had the political connections and know how to get things going in moving the ATLS concept to a higher level.  They all knew that the College’s endorsement was critical to get ATLS accepted in any kind of broad way.  Fortunately, Skip quickly became a true disciple of ATLS and gladly took the lead in presenting the course to the College in short order. 

By then, word of the innovation of ATLS had gotten around the Lincoln medical community and people liked what they heard.  More and more doctors approached dad, Jodie, and Ron about the course, joined in, and began to write chapters about their various specialties and the application of those specialties to the ATLS concept for the syllabus. 

Also among those that joined in the fray early was a Lincoln Mobil Heart Team nurse named Irvene Hughes.  She was so taken by the story of what had happened to dad and what was transpiring before her with ATLS that they asked her if she would write the introduction to the course, where she told dad’s story and how it had led them all to that point.  She became the Manager of the ATLS program for The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and remained in that post for the rest of her professional career, spanning from 1982 to 2006.  

The concept of the ABC’s of trauma was further refined through the contributions of everyone and became the definitive way to prioritize the order of assessment and treatment.  Nothing new was added, and there were no research related discoveries or scientific revelations associated with ATLS.  They all just took what was known and organized it in a different, more efficient way for treating the trauma patient.  Simplicity was the key, and as they worked, that key was being turned and would soon open a door bigger than any of them could have imagined. 

Then it was done.  The prototype course for ATLS was field tested in Auburn, Nebraska in 1978 with the help of several groups and individuals who had by then become convinced of ATLS’ relevance and importance to trauma medicine.  It seemed to work.  Armed with the early successes, Skip took the course and presented it to the University of Nebraska, who was also duly impressed and supportive. The University faculty threw their support behind ATLS by providing surgical training facilities to truly field test the concept.  Next, Skip got The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma involved, and they too were impressed by what they saw. 

Dad and his friends took the finished course to the thirteen regions of the College and presented their work.  All of the doctors there were intrigued and inspired at what they were presented.  Could it really be that easy?  Could there really be a simple way to standardize trauma care and make it quickly available to all rural doctors? 

It appeared so. 

And, while they were at it, if it was good for them, why not the rest of the world?  The College quickly arborized the course within each region, and ATLS was officially born.  The United States military was one of the first major organizations to adopt it, and they still use it as the basis of combat care for their wounded troops. 

From its inception, the basic concepts have never changed for ATLS and it turned out to be more successful in its application than dad, Ron and Jodie ever hoped for.  Other states in the nation and Canada began to adopt the course through the American College of Surgeons and began to teach the concepts of ATLS to their respective trauma physicians.  ATLS continued to prove incredibly effective and from the US and Canada it moved to other countries all over the world.