Dr. John R. Border. Youth Corps workers Edna M. Nelson and Olivia Stepps, 1968. Photo courtesy of the Buffalo History Museum, used by permission. School of Nursing students in library, Meyer Memorial Hospital, 1959. 32 In an effort to improve trauma care at Meyer Memorial, Dr. Border created a trauma care center in 1972. He was convinced that trauma patients should only be taken to hospitals which are set up and equipped to treat patients suffering from trauma. That meant that every accident victim taken to Meyer underwent a massive screening program designed by Dr. Border and his staff which was designed to detect every injury as soon as possible. “Hiddeninjuries,if undetectedanduntreated,areusuallytheonesthatarelifethreatening,” Dr. Border explained. “For example, someone who has a chest injury suffered from impact with a steering wheel in an auto accident has a lung problem, which if untreated can result in death.” Dr. Border was no doubt a vocal proponent of automobile seatbelts before they became legally required. In New York, the first state to mandate the wearing of seat belts, that law did not become effective until the end of 1984. Dr. Border, who was also a professor of surgery at UB Medical School, worked with biophysicists, biochemists, epidemiologists and other scientists at the university on all aspects of trauma care. Meyer Memorial Hospital 1939-1978 Dr. John R. Border A 1956 graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. John R. Border introduced many innovative methods in trauma care, particularly in orthopaedic trauma, that later became accepted practices throughout the nation. A faculty member of the Department of Surgery at UB, during the 1970s he led a research team at ECMC and the University at Buffalo in developing treatment plans for patients suffering from the stress of severe, multiple trauma. While traveling in Europe, Dr. Border had observed the success of aggressive resuscitation and the immediate setting of fractures in trauma patients, methods of care that were then virtually unknown in the U.S. He also recognized the danger inherent in the physical stress suffered from severe multiple trauma and led a University at Buffalo research team that discovered the benefits of treating patients with a protein and glucose therapy. The treatment enables injured bodies to repair damaged tissue and prevents post-traumatic shutdown of vital organs. It has saved countless accident and injury victims from multiple-system organ failure. Dr. Border served on the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and was the director of trauma services at ECMC until his retirement in 1991. Yet even after his retirement, he continued working to improve the treatment of trauma patients, both locally and internationally, until his death in 1996.