It is no secret that violent crime has risen across much of the Birmingham area in recent years.

Homicides in Birmingham alone have jumped 60 percent since 2010, and 150 people were killed in all of Jefferson County last year alone.

But the number of the dead paints only part of the picture, for far more people were treated at UAB Hospital for gunshot wounds than any time in recent history. And of those treated, nine out of every 10 survived.

Nearly 550 shooting victims were taken to UAB last year, an increase of 103 percent from 2010. Of the 484 whose injuries were possibly survivable, 94.4 percent did, indeed, survive.

It is a both a story of an alarming increase in shootings, and a stunning ability to treat the wounds of violence.

"It's sad to see how violence has increased in our society but it is remarkable to look at the survival rates now compared to past years,'' said Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian. "That's a real tribute to emergency responders and the advances made in the medical profession. Truly remarkable."

Numbers provided by UAB Hospital make it clear just how how many lives are saved by Birmingham area first responders and emergency medical professionals.

Of the close to 55,000 UAB Hospital admissions each year, 3,000 to 3,500 of those patients are trauma cases. And, of those, almost one-seventh are gunshot wounds. "It's a big part of what we do,'' said Dr. Jeff Kerby, UAB's director of trauma surgery. "We're only losing five percent of the patients if they make it here alive, and that's really good. That's a lot of patients that walked out of here alive that may not have."

Last year, a total of 547 gunshot victims were transported to UAB Hospital, and that number does not include the younger victims taken to Children's of Alabama or less-serious wounds that perhaps were treated by on-scene medics or taken to another area medical facility.

While the hospital takes in patients from around the state, the majority of those victims are from the Birmingham metropolitan area. The number of gunshot victims treated at UAB has steadily risen since at least 2010: 441 in 2015, 373 in 2014, 352 in 2013, 293 in 2012, 265 in 2011 and 238 in 2010.

2016 was a year of bloodshed in Birmingham, which left the city with a triple-digit homicide tally for the first time in 10 years. There were 104 homicides in the city, of which 92 were deemed criminal by authorities. In all of Jefferson County, there were 151 homicides, up from 144 the previous year. Birmingham police said they investigated more than 600 assaults last year, but that number includes shootings, stabbings, and blunt force trauma.

The increase, experts say, was nationwide. The number of murders in Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, leaped from 478 in 2015 to more than 700 by year's end. By all accounts, gun violence is at epidemic levels.

"Nationally, and particularly in larger cities, the trend appears to be the continued prevalence of gun violence. It's frustrating from a law enforcement standpoint because these issues cannot be fixed by the police alone,'' said Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector. "Values, self-respect, respect for others and self-restraint are clearly not being taught today like they were years ago. Young men are settling arguments with guns, when a generation ago that argument would have been a fistfight as the worst-case scenario."

"It's just mind-boggling to see one of our local hospitals treating over 500 gunshot victims in one year,'' Rector said. "And then on a much large scale, cities like Chicago appear to be in an uncontrollable spiral of gun violence."

In 1997, UAB treated 148 gunshot victims, of which 134 survived. Those numbers for the following years were: 125 in 1998, 109 in 1999, 164 in 2000, 192 in 2001, 188 in 2002, 224 in 2003, 219 in 2004, 277 in 2005, 291 in 2006, 321 in 2007, 300 in 2008 and 277 in 2009, according to numbers provided by Russell Griffin, an assistant professor with UAB's Department of Epidemiology.

During those years, the hospital's survival rate stayed steady - with a range in the mid-80 to low-90 percentile. Cooper Green hospital also treated gunshot victims before its closed in 2012

When the now-closed Carraway Methodist Medical Center stopped treating the most serious trauma cases in May 2002, UAB and Children's became the only Level 1 trauma centers for all of central Alabama. To achieve Level 1 status, hospitals must have a variety of surgeons and specialty doctors on call or on duty 24 hours a day, among other requirements.

Cooper Green hospital also treated gunshot victims before it closed in 2012, but it was not a Level 1 trauma center.

Despite the increasing number of gunshot victims, and the severity of their wounds from increased firepower, survival rates are as high as ever. The reasons, experts say, are faster and more deliberate transport of patients and advances in technology and medical care.

The Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service in 1973 started its paramedic program. In 1993, BFRS stopped waiting for ambulances and started transporting the most critical patients with its own rescue units. The city in 1999 added more rescue units, and began to transport all patients itself.

In 1996, the Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System (BREMSS) began providing trauma routing for the seven counties in the Birmingham area - Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, Walker, and Winston. Through that program, paramedics contact the control center in Birmingham, which locates the closest hospital best able to take of patients with life-threatening injuries, and hospital availability is updated every minute.

In addition to faster transport during the "golden hour" - the crucial period after suffering violence - medical advances also have boosted the survival rate. Kerby said that in about 2010, they started with massive transfusion protocols. "Before, we gave them all this saline and lactated ringers and then we would give them some blood and then we would give them some plasma,'' he said. "But we really changed our practice based on the military's experience. We started giving blood and plasma in higher doses up front trying to replace what they lost early on."

"What we saw was the jump from 90 percent to 94 percent (survival rates),'' he said. "A lot of that can be attributed to how we are more focused on that initial resuscitation. More people are surviving gunshot wounds as a result of it."

Kerby they treat every patient the same way. It is a methodical, step-by-step evaluation and treatment process. "We have a system in place,'' he said. "We drill it. We practice it."

"If you get five or six patients at one time, it's chaos,'' he said. "It's organized chaos, but it's still chaos."

There is a trauma surgeon at the hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. "I don't think that's something people understand. When they're coming here, they're coming to the trauma center. It's surgeons meeting them at the door."

"We're doing all we can to prevent death and disability,'' he said. "We really need to focus on prevention, and raise awareness about gun violence and the effects it has."

Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper couldn't agree more.

"We are extremely fortunate to have an outstanding medical system in the Birmingham metropolitan area. Lives have been saved and families reunited due to cutting edge first response and hospital treatment,'' he said. "However, we have too many people resorting to gun violence to resolve simple disputes. We are proud of our doctors and medical staffs, but the key to a safer community is not medical treatment but violence prevention and proper conflict resolution."