The surgeon and emergency medical services for children.

A central focus of emergency medical services for children is the critically injured child, whose potential for recovery is great. Yet trauma remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among American children 1-14 years of age. Much unnecessary death and disability can be avoided through aggressive professional and public education in pediatric advanced life support and injury prevention. As the primary-care physician of the critically injured child, the surgeon plays a leading role in ensuring that trauma and emergency medical services systems are optimally prepared to meet the dual challenges of providing optimal pediatric trauma care and obviating the need for such treatment through all means possible.