Page 146 - JSOM Winter 2021

Hail and Farewell! Following his early successes, Tom continued to deliver ground-
Melissa Givens, MD, MPH, has joined the Consortium for Health breaking research that resulted in further understanding and
and Military Performance, A DoD Center of Excellence, Depart- improved clinical care in many areas. Because many innova-
ment of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services tions have been adopted by civilian trauma care providers, the
University, as executive director, and Patricia Deuster, PhD, MPH, research produced by Tom has saved innumerable lives world-
FACSM, will be leaving that position. As the section contributor wide. In 2018, Tom was selected to serve as the manager of
of Human Performance Optimization, Patty has provided the the Prolonged Field Care (PFC) Capability Area for the US Army
JSOM with many reports on a range of fascinating issues, and Medical Research and Development Command’s Combat Ca-
we are grateful to her for all of her hard work. Recently, Patty sualty Care Research Program (CCCRP). In this role he led a
received a 2021 MHSRS Distinguished Service Award. Missy has multidisciplinary research team to advance areas including ex-
worked with JSOM previously; we are excited to welcome her! tracorporeal life support, trauma, and hemorrhage.
Some of the significance of the work by Tom and his colleagues
Thank You for Your Service
Thomas J. Walters, PhD, retired from his position as supervisory can be summed up in this excerpt from the 2013 JSOM article
research physiologist at the US Army Institute of Surgical Re- “Tragedy Into Drama: An American History of Tourniquet Use in
search (USAISR) in October 2021 after 21 years of service. He the Current War”:
was awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal in recognition In 2009, a nephew, Army SGT Daniel Archer, and three of his
of exemplary service. As a transformative scientific leader, Tom buddies visited his uncle, Dr Tom Walters, during a day off
has been at the forefront of combat casualty care research and is from their medic training, a postdeployment refresher. In con-
an internationally recognized expert in tourniquet use for hem- versation about their training, the nephew told his buddies
orrhage control and muscle injury sequelae. His research efforts that his uncle as a researcher was involved in getting the new
have resulted in great strides in military battlefield medicine and tourniquet issued earlier that decade. The buddies said, “No
have paid off in the most important criterion of success: lives way,” that there always had been a tourniquet issued to all.
saved both on the battlefield and in civilian trauma victims. The uncle replied, “Way,” and told them the story of how
Tom first came to the USAISR in 2000 as a research physiologist history happened. Over beer and barbecue, Walters told his
with a focus on extremity trauma and regenerative medicine. nephew and his buddies that only a few years earlier, all the
At that time, tourniquets were used as a last resort to control training they would have had would have been an hour or
extremity hemorrhage as the prevailing wisdom suggested im- so of instruction with a stick-and-cravat tourniquet, not the
pending limb loss. Beyond being an exemplary scientist and an standard-issue tourniquet of today.
extra ordinary mentor and colleague, Tom had an interpersonal They were amazed and asked, “You mean it hasn’t always
connection to community members. Key to this connection was been this way?’
the conference “USAISR/USSOCOM Conference” (15–16 August “No, it has not,” replied Walters.
2002). Medics from the war relayed their problems, such as a The 2013 JSOM article has legs, still.
need for a good tourniquet. This was pivotal for Tom’s new con-
nection to our community. Scott Is Our Special Santa
Our vice president of operations and chief information officer
The expert panel met periodically from 2000 to 2005. The med- for Breakaway Media, Dr Scott Graverson, is responsible for the
ics and physicians on the panel will recall easily, although the day-to-day operations of
community at large will not know, that Tom immediately assessed the business, including
the problem and initiated studies into the use of tourniquets, maintaining the journal
techniques, and technologies to mitigate ischemia-reperfusion subscriptions, updating
injury to muscles resulting from tourniquet use. The military had the web sites, and manag-
no standard tourniquet for field use; the rapid rise in battlefield ing the group handbook
morbidity and mortality associated with combat operations sales. Scott is a life-long
during OIF resulted in a critical need to address extremity hem- IT professional, retiring Magical Memories Photography
orrhage. Tom quickly took on the primary investigator role for a from the US Air Force
series of studies that compared commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) after 24 years of service
tourniquets for field use. Data from these studies demonstrated in the comm- computer
the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) was successful in field. He retired from HQ,
stopping blood flow to the leg, easy to use, and logistically fea- US Special Operations Command as the NCOIC of the Web and
sible for use in the field.
Database Support Branch at the rank of master sergeant. He also
In addition to identifying the CAT as a fieldable solution, Tom is a professor in the College of Business and Leadership at Am-
was instrumental in convening a consensus panel of experts that ridge University in Montgomery, AL. He teaches undergraduate,
changed accompanying guidelines to use the tourniquet not as graduate, and postgraduate courses in information technology,
a last resort but as an early intervention for extremity hemor- computer science, leadership, and management and has been
rhage control. Both the CAT and the improved guidelines were with the university since 2005. Scott is also a former scare actor
fielded quickly and have been responsible for saving more lives and current stage manager at Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay for
on the battlefield than any other single intervention. The team their annual Howl-o-Scream event in September and October.
that Tom led received the Army’s Greatest Invention Award in Scott has been a professional “ real-bearded” Santa for 4 years
2005 in recognition of their efforts. The CAT and the guidelines and performs at Busch Gardens’ Christmastown event as well as
that Tom developed are now used in civilian prehospital set- Tampa’s Winter Village and other community events. Scott also
tings and are the foundation of the nationwide “Stop the Bleed” donates his time to perform in drive-by parades for children with
campaign, which has brought hemorrhage control to laypeople juvenile cancer when they are unable to visit Santa in person.
within the community.

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