Anita Dorr, RN, with Dr. John Border at Meyer Memorial Hospital. Anita Dorr, RN, with Crash Cart, 1967. Photo courtesy of The Buffalo Courier-Express Microfilm Collection, Archives & Special Collections, E.H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State. Mrs. Ethel Hicks, kitchen supervisor; Mrs. Ada Hinkle, cook; and Mrs. Helen Evan, food service helper, serve corn bread, ham hocks and cabbage as part of a special ‘Soul Food Dinner’ at Meyer Memorial Hospital, ca. 1960s. 31 Meyer Memorial Hospital 1939-1978 The origin of ECMC’s experience in trauma. ECMC’s expertise in trauma began in the late 1960s and early 1970s when a trauma study center was developed at Meyer Memorial in an effort to prevent injuries, disabilities, and deaths from accidents, falls, and burns. Led by Dr. John R. Border, an international pioneer of trauma care and research, the center was one of only ten federally funded centers in the country devoted to the study of trauma and was funded by a $210,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. Because of the huge deficiencies at different levels of trauma care that caused unnecessary deaths and disabilities, Dr. Border believed there was a need for an organized group of professionals to act as an advocate for trauma patients. To ensure the best care for emergency systems and traumatic injuries, he and others founded the American Trauma Society (ATS) in 1968. Today the ATS works to strengthen trauma centers, advises trauma patients and their families, and champions the establishment of injury prevention programs. In 1988, the ATS and Congress established May as National Trauma Awareness Month. Soul food served at Meyer Memorial Hospital. During the 1960s, Meyer employees were fortunate enough to enjoy delicious soul food dinners at the cafeteria thanks to the culinary skills of three invaluable kitchen workers. A perennial favorite was the ham hocks entrée served with cabbage and corn bread. It was just one of the recipes in the BRAG’s Soul Food Cook Book, a cooperative effort between the women of Buffalo Rights Action Group (BRAG) and the Church Women United of the Buffalo Council of Churches. The book explained that when black cooks worked in white kitchens, they were frequently dismayed at the waste of good food thrown away and oftentimes created tasty and nutritious dishes from food others considered inedible. These sustaining foods were deemed good for the soul, the origin of the term soul food. Anita Dorr, RN, and the crash cart Anita Dorr began her 24 years at Meyer Hospital as an operating room nurse and it was that experience that shaped her career as one of the most influential emergency medicine nurses in the nation. She was the founder and executive director of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), now an international organization with over 40,000 members. But it was her development of the crash cart that secures her legacy. It is now used in hospitals throughout the world where it is an essential component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, endotracheal intubation, and the treatment of lethal arrhythmias. She and her husband developed and built the red-painted wooden prototype at their home in the mid-1960s. It had wheels and a laminate top and was designed to hold all the most essential tools and drugs needed in a medical crisis, particularly for a patient in cardiac arrest. Originally known as the Dorr Cart or crisis cart, today the crash cart is essentially a steel cabinet on wheels comprised of a set of drawers containing defibrillators, advanced cardiac life support drugs and other medical items deemed necessary by the hospital. During World War II, Anita Dorr served with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in Africa and Europe and attained the rank of major. Before her death in 1972, she attended guards and prisoners during the uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility and also served as a consultant to Paramount Pictures for its medical television programs.