James Cook University
Research Field: Trauma, Injury
Traumatic injury is responsible for 10% of deaths worldwide every year and is the leading cause of death among people under 45-years. Importantly, up to half of these deaths occur before the patient reaches hospital. Time is the killer. There is an urgent unmet need for improved treatments to resuscitate and stabilise injured and bleeding patients in the prehospital environment.
With support from the US Military, Dr Hayley Letson is developing a novel fluid therapy called ALM that can be administered in the prehospital environment to resuscitate and stabilise patients prior to evacuation to definitive care. ALM stops bleeding, rescues the heart, and protects the body after trauma and has multiple potential applications on the battlefield and in civilian emergency care, particularly in regional, rural and remote environments.
Hayley has presented to a variety of audiences, including ADF personnel and to patients families and careers at the 7th National Brain Injury Conference in 2019. She presented a TEDx Talk called “Ten Minutes to Save a Life” and delivered a public webinar called “Not All Superheroes Wear Stethoscopes”. She also presented the lecture “Concussion in Sport: Lessons from the Battlefield” as a part of the Inspiration on Tap public lecture series.
Dr Letson completed her PhD at James Cook University in 2017 and is currently a Research Fellow in the College of Medicine and Dentistry at JCU.