Natividad’s trauma center marks a decade of service and thousands of lives saved.

The first weekend after Natividad hospital’s Level II trauma center in Salinas opened on Jan. 5, 2015, patients with major injuries were showing up for care, so much so, the radiologist on duty was astonished.

“This place went from zero to 60 overnight. Where were all these people going?” Dr. Alexander Di Stante, trauma medical director and surgical services director, recalls the radiologist saying.

Before Natividad earned the designation there were no trauma centers between San Jose and Santa Barbara, which meant precious time lost transporting people to emergency care, usually in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Weekly reported in 2013 that nearly 400 patients a year were flown by helicopter to that region annually, most of them the result of traffic collisions or gunshot wounds.

Over the 10 years since, the Natividad Trauma Center, owned and operated by the County of Monterey, has treated over 14,000 patients, about 1,400 per year. Di Stante believes the center’s presence has resulted in “thousands of lives saved.” He also believes it has transformed the hospital as a whole, with the introduction of advanced technology medical equipment and highly trained staff.

Natividad won the trauma center designation in a contest with Salinas Valley Health, scoring higher after a review by a panel of independent medical experts. Natividad spent approximately $12 million in upgrades and staffing costs at the time to qualify, expecting to recoup costs through the influx of new patients.

Natividad’s center is staffed 24/7 by surgeons and other professionals – trauma surgeons must be able to respond within 15 minutes.

There are many memorable cases that have come through the center’s doors, with the 2022 shark encounter of Steve Bruemmer in Pacific Grove perhaps most memorable, Di Stante says. Bruemmer was bitten across the thighs and abdomen by a great white shark off Lovers Point, and he required 28 pints of blood. He left Natividad three weeks later, grateful for the lifesaving care he received.

Bruemmer is expected to be part of a Stop the Bleed class the center is offering to the public on Jan. 26, which will teach participants how to stop major bleeding in accidents. Public education classes like Stop the Bleed, fall prevention and violence intervention are just another aspect of Natividad’s mission as a trauma center.