A 24-year-old motorcyclist is brought in thirty minutes after a high-speed collision. Blood is pulsing from a deep laceration on the medial aspect of his left thigh and has soaked through two dressings and the trolley mattress. He is talking, but there is blood and a broken tooth in his mouth and his breathing is noisy. Heart rate 138/min, blood pressure 88/60 mmHg, respiratory rate 28/min. A pelvic radiograph taken on arrival shows a widened pubic symphysis. Two units of group O red cells have been brought to the bay. Which one of the following should be done before any of the others?
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Filed under surgery › critical-care-emergency-medicine-anaesthesiology-and-intensive-care › trauma › management-of-trauma-patients

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