at any moment's notice University Hospital in Newark has nearly 50 ambulances at the ready for a call it's the kind of preparation the hospital's emergency trauma department is accustomed to during the summer months when traumatic injuries from gun violence or car crashes reach a peak last year alone the team responded to more than 130,000 calls for service senior correspondent Joanna Gagis recently went for a ride along with the ambulance crew as they responded to some of those near fatal calls wake up bud these EMS workers are trying to save the life of a man who overdosed and was found lying on a sidewalk in Newark they found you uh overdosed gave you some Narcan and you're back thankfully it worked this case is just one of countless calls that EMS workers at University Hospital respond to on a given day but as the summer months heat up so too does the frequency and severity of these calls our violent encounters do go up so the things like shooting stabbings assaults uh will increase uh we'll see an increase in overdose responses uh we'll see an increase in our motor vehicle crashes because there's more people on the road and we see an increase in our overall General Trauma from Falls and cuts okay we're sending the ambulance to help you now stay on the line I'm going to tell you exactly what to do next but if this looks like any ordinary EMS response team it's not University Hospital is the only level one trauma center located in North Jersey and its EMS program spans countless functions 911 basic and advanced level uh emergency response for the city EMS rescue operations uh those guys are technically uh trained to do high angle rescue vehicle disentanglement and a host of other rescue type of operations we are the JEMSTAR program which is the New Jersey medical air medical evac program plus they provide tactical Medics to the FBI and the US Marshals office office and heavy rescue operations with the fire department Ron rowski knows firsthand all that's required to do this job well it's starts with assessing a patient having the the skills to look at a patient first of all to determine are they sick or not sick then come all the external forces they're competing with number one safety people don't always obviously uh pay attention to lights and Sirens situation awareness you know we learned that from uh the very beginning stages you have to know uh what's around you you know if something happens how do I get out of it uh you've got the radio going so you have to listen to see if your your number's being called you have to watch traffic you have to make sure you're going to the right location but it's the high level operation that allows patients to receive Advanced life support before they even step foot into University Hospital's Trauma Center that's where they'll meet Dr Fox and his team the trauma center brings a full team that is what we call multi-disciplinary into take care of patients who may be either already noticed to have serious injuries or the potential to have injuries and that trauma team is actually run by a trauma surgeon so a surgeon and not an emergency physician is the one who is going to be evaluating and making decisions sort of like the conductor of an orchestra about what patients need a critical part of the treatment process is how quickly patients are triaged when they arrive here head to toe they'll be fully assessed within minutes and then referred for their next steps in care so somebody shot in the face I will see them with my team we will evaluate them stabilize them and then get the appropriate uh Personnel to see them whether it's an oral Max a facial surgeon an orthopedic surgeon a spine surgeon whatever it might be but during these busy months space is one of their greatest challenges it certainly could be uh larger and allow us to absorb even more at capacity what can this space look like it could look like a war zone uh it's a Controlled Chaos kind of War Zone a we during the summertime you will walk through this trauma Bay and it will be full there will be patients pretty much in every nook and cranny that we have they're all being monitored and they're all being uh evaluated appropriately but it's crowded crowded but coordinated even after they leave they have a survivors Clinic that works with violence prevention teams to keep patients from returning and at the end of a busy day they know why they do this work just seeing the patient turn around and the gratitude that they have just makes it all worthwhile in Newark I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent lensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association [Music]