Donald D. Trunkey papers

This collection includes a wide array of paper, photographic and electronic media. Correspondence, memos, reports, articles, journals, books and multi-media presentations are included.

Series I: Professional Papers. Here are located materials covering various aspects of his career. Included is a voluminous correspondence of an official nature as well as that concerning his hundreds of published works. Autobiographical and biographical articles, and information about his many slide presentations are in this section. Documentation concerning his military service is here as well, as is his involvement in numerous professional societies.

Series II: Military Medicine. This section deals in more detail his work with the Army and combat trauma medicine in general. There is much on his wartime service in 1991 as chief of surgery with the 50th General Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm against Iraq. His critiques on the lessons learned are here, which changed the way the Army approached combat trauma. He continued to help in this new training approach into the 21st century.

Series III: Trauma and Trauma Care Systems. Here is contained Dr. Trunkey’s work on the theory and practice of trauma care, and the organization of systems to provide it. Included also is the famous Orange County, California study. This study, prompted by an angry denial of his 1979 critique on emergency care, ended up independently confirming his criticisms, and of the need for a new approach to trauma care.

Series IV: Trauma and the Human Body. This section goes into the specifics of trauma and trauma care. Not only of the types of trauma, whether-blunt or penetrating; due to burns, accident, or violence; but also their specific impact on the various parts of the anatomy as well.

Series V: Diagnosis and Therapy. In this series will be found Trunkey’s work not only concerning surgical protocols, but also non-surgical options including fluid resuscitation and computer tomography.

Series VI: History of Medicine. Dr. Trunkey here indulges his love of historical topics in presentations ranging from Lord Nelson to the American Civil War to Presidential assassinations.

Series VII: Photographic Media. A series which provides some photo prints and radiographs; but the bulk of which is comprised of his many slide presentations.

Series VIII: Electronic Media. Herein are contained many of his lectures, presentations, and photo prints in CD and DVD format. These are individually housed in plastic and paper containers.

Series IX: Electronic Media and Bound Volumes. This grouping contains some CD/DVD items which were housed not in individual containers but in plastic pages holding multiple items in a file format. There are bound items as well.

Series X: Artifacts. Located here are a variety of personal items from tobacco pipes to oversize certificates and awards.