Broken Sternum in Car Accidents
I’m Ed Smith, a car accident lawyer in Sacramento. When someone is involved in a car accident, there are several different traumatic injuries that someone could suffer. According to a research study released in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery:
- About half of the people that were killed in a car accident have suffered a chest injury of some kind.
- Annually, chest trauma that occurred due to an injury is responsible for about a quarter of deaths.
- Three-quarters of chest injuries involve some form of blunt trauma.
These are critical figures and help highlight just how dangerous a chest injury can be. When someone sustains chest trauma, there are several injuries that people should to be concerned about. Some other chest injuries include:
- Aortic injuries
- Cardiac contusions
- Esophageal injuries
- Lung damage
- Rib fractures
A Case Report: A Broken Sternum
A young man was driving his car on a highway when traffic conditions changed, and he collided with a concrete barrier sitting between the two directions of traffic. His airbag deployed, but his chest still hit the steering wheel. When medical personnel arrived, they realized that he had sustained polytrauma (multiple traumatic injuries) and was taken to a near by hospital. Upon arrival, doctors realized that he had multiple, massive bruises and lacerations to his chest. He was scanned and found to have suffered numerous bone fractures throughout his chest.
Based on the imaging, his sternum was broken in multiple places. To repair these breaks, he was taken to an operating room. His sternum was corrected using wires. Unfortunately, several months after the injury, he was still having chest pain. He returned to the hospital and was scanned again. Sadly, they found that his sternum had not healed properly. This complication is called malunion. Someone with malunion has had a bone fracture heal improperly. He was taken back to the operating room to repair his sternum. Having to re-break a bone for the purpose of proper healing is a serious issue. Extra care was taken to ensure that his injury would heal correctly this time. Eventually, this young man made a full recovery.
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Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers in Sacramento
I’m Ed Smith, a car accident lawyer in Sacramento. If you or someone you love has suffered severe chest trauma following a car crash, call me at (800) 404-5400 or (916) 921-6400. I will be happy to share free, friendly legal advice.
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Picture Credit: Unsplash.
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