"Don’t waste any valuable time trying to stabilize the patient. Put him in the ambulance and take him to the hospital to the trauma center immediately without any delay," said Demetriades.

Different treatments

Talving said that is especially critical with gunshot and stab wounds. "Particularly with the penetrating trauma because if you got a vascular injury to the chest torso, there is nothing else than surgery that will stop the bleeding."

That is the case for the elderly stabbing victim. Dr. Talving had to operate to stop the internal bleeding. The concept of "scoop and run" also is one of the reasons why 18-year-old Juan Gallardo survived a drive-by shooting.

"This patient has a gunshot injury to the heart and lung. Twenty years ago he would have been dead and buried - had memorial services every year," he said.

But after surgery, though, Gallardo is returning home two weeks after the shooting. "I’m planning on going back to school and go to church."

In another change, the hospital operates selectively on patients with gunshots to the abdomen - especially if no vital organs are hit. Not operating reduces medical complications after surgery.

Additionally, in a lesson learned from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, Demetriades said there's a new procedure instead of the traditional method of giving trauma patients large amounts of intravenous fluids such as saline.