Most people believe survival after a serious injury is decided in the operating room. It usually isn't. It's decided in the first five minutes, before the ambulance arrives, by whoever is standing closest.

This opening episode of First 5 Minutes lays out the idea behind the whole series: what happens in those first minutes often matters more than anything that comes later. The show draws on the work of Dr. Alexander Eastman, a trauma surgeon and EMS physician who led the Rees-Jones Trauma Center at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, serves as a reserve lieutenant and Chief Medical Officer with the Dallas Police Department, and contributed to the Hartford Consensus, the national effort behind Stop the Bleed.

In this episode:

• Why time, not skill, is often what decides whether a survivable injury is survived
• How a b ...