The Beginnings
of a Legacy

Though the patients who land there may not realize it, Harborview Medical Center is the birthplace of modern traumatology and is renowned globally for its Level I Trauma Center.

We have come to rely upon a certain caliber of emergency response when involved in a devastating accident: from immediate medical care on the scene to life-saving surgical treatment by highly specialized doctors at a hospital. But just 40 years ago, this approach was considered radical — and even dangerous. It took the courage and conviction of a small group of doctors to create the system of modern trauma care — and it happened in Seattle.

These innovations were not initially embraced. Many believed it constituted malpractice. But for those involved, belief in what they were doing and perseverance won others to their side — eventually, around the world.

Until the late sixties, a trauma victim with a fracture faced weeks of lying immobilized in traction. This complicated treatment of other injuries and created a host of new problems, such as bedsores, pneumonia or embolism. But a convergence of ideas at the “hospital on the hill” in Seattle would lead to a new way of handling trauma victims and the creation of the first Level I Trauma Unit.

While the Harborview doctors were revolutionizing trauma patient care at the hospital, others were changing the way patients would be treated at an accident scene. This led to the establishment of Medic One, the country’s first paramedic response programs, in conjunction with Harborview and the Seattle Fire Department.

Now patients who previously would have died at the scene were arriving at the hospital alive, with severe injuries, and the need for a comprehensive trauma center became apparent.

Harborview: The Trauma Story is a documentary film that tells the little-known history about Seattle’s hospital on the hill.