Final answer:
Control of bleeding in pediatric trauma patients is crucial to prevent hemorrhage. Significant loss of blood requires medical intervention to restore proper blood volume and might necessitate blood transfusions with O negative blood when the blood type is unknown.
Step-by-step explanation:
Bleeding in a pediatric trauma patient must be controlled to prevent hemorrhage, which is the loss of blood that cannot be managed by the body's hemostatic mechanisms. In such cases, the initial response involves the body increasing blood pressure to maintain blood flow. However, if blood loss is significant, as in the case of a severe injury where a blood vessel may be severed leading to loss of blood components like erythrocytes and white blood cells, physiological mechanisms will not suffice, and medical intervention is required to restore blood volume.
Notably, in a trauma scenario with a risk of blood loss of at least 500 ml (or 7 ml/kg in children), appropriate access and fluids must be promptly available. Furthermore, during severe traumatic events that preclude the determination of blood type, the patient may be given type O negative blood, which is considered the universal donor type and minimizes the risks associated with blood transfusion reactions.