A Heart Aneurysm due to Traumatic Injury
I’m Ed Smith, a Personal Injury Lawyer in Sacramento. Some injuries sustained in car accidents can be dangerous to vital organs, such as those of the chest and abdomen. Chest trauma has a high rate of both morbidity and mortality, particularly when a car crash is involved. According to a research article published in the Surgical Clinics of North America:
- About a quarter of all deaths attributed to traumatic events are due to thoracic injuries.
- Of the deaths that remain, chest trauma is a contributing factor in about half of them.
- Chest injuries lead to over 16,000 deaths in the United States on an annual basis.
- Based on the statistics above, chest injuries directly cause or contribute to around three-quarters of all deaths due to trauma.
Clearly, chest trauma plays a significant role in traumatic accidents. Some of the chest injuries that people might develop in a car crash include:
- Bone fractures of the ribs or sternum
- A collapsed lung
- Injuries of major blood vessels, such as the aorta
- Pulmonary contusions
- Heart damage
Even though the heart is protected by the rib cage, there is still a significant risk of injury. A case report was published describing a patient who sustained a severe cardiac injury in an auto accident that could have resulted in his death.
A Ventricular Septal Aneurysm can Result from an Auto Accident
A team of medical professionals took care of a 6-year-old boy following an auto accident and discovered he had developed an unusual heart anomaly. The boy and his family were traveling on a highway when they were involved in a severe car accident. EMS was called to the scene and found the child dazed, confused and struggling to breathe. His chest was significantly bruised. He was experiencing a variety of symptoms, including:
- Altered mental status
- Low heart rate
- Low blood pressure
- Difficulty breathing
- Signs of inadequate oxygen and blood perfusion
To treat these symptoms, the emergency medical personnel gave him additional fluids through an IV to increase his blood pressure and rushed him to a hospital. There, an EKG was performed that showed a complete heart block. This means that the chambers of his heart were not communicating correctly, leading to difficulty pumping blood to the rest of his body. Additional testing showed that he had developed an aneurysm between his two ventricles. Similar to aneurysms of the brain, a cardiac aneurysm develops when a part of the heart “balloons” out from the rest of the organ. In this case, the balloon was blocking the electrical conduction of the heart, leading to a low heart rate and blood pressure. The child was taken to an operating room, and the ventricular aneurysm was removed. Eventually, the child made a full recovery. On the other hand, if this aneurysm was not caught in time, it could have ruptured inside the child’s chest. This would have led to rapid internal bleeding and, likely, death.
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I’m Ed Smith, a Personal Injury Lawyer in Sacramento. If you or a family member has been injured in a car accident, please contact me at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400. I will be happy to share friendly, free advice.
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