Unsafe On THE Roads: At PGI, head injury most common in accident victims

The Triage Department of the Advanced Trauma Centre is flooded with accident victims like Sachin, most of them in their 20s and 30s.

In 2014, of the 55,727 cases that were wheeled into the ATC, 12,528, or under a quarter, were accident cases. Of the total accident victims, 10,924 were from Chandigarh.

This year, until May, 18,906 cases were examined at the ATC. Accident cases were 4,733 and majority of them, that is 3697, were from Chandigarh.

At any given moment, the ATC remains fully occupied with over 100 patients, of which at least one-fourth are accident cases. Daily, 10-15 new accident cases because of ‘speeding’ vehicles are reported at the ATC.

“Usually there are two categories of accident victims,” Dr Manish Chhabra, SMO at ATC, said, “One are in the age group of 18 to 30 and another one are 50 above. We have observed that younger lots are the riders or drivers and older ones are the back-seaters or are passersby who are hit by speeding vehicles.”

Head injury is most common in accident victims. In view of the large number of head injuries, a separate 50-60-bedded space has been allotted to these cases.

“If we receive 100 accident cases, then 70 per cent of them would have severe head injuries. Daily, at ATC, we receive around 20 new cases of neurosurgery,” said Dr Ankur, Senior Resident, Neurosurgery, PGI.

“The recovery rate of patients with brain injuries is very rare, and there is a scope of 1-5 per cent improvement. There are very little chances of patients leading a normal life after suffering a head injury,” Dr Manish added.

A study published by PGI earlier this year advocated a law making helmet compulsory for two-wheeler riders, “irrespective of sex and religion”. At present, helmets are compulsory for men, but not for women. But even the men can be spotted taking chances without protective head gear.

“Full head coverage via helmet provides an extra advantage in reducing the injuries to cervical spine and facial structures”, the study said.
Behavioural problems, paralysis, post-traumatic seizures, memory loss and others are few of the common complaints of head injury patients, if they survive.

Narrating another incident, Dr Manish said, “I still remember an engineering student from PEC, who was hit by a speeding car while he was going back home after having dinner. The young boy suffered a cervical spine injury. Apart from his face, his entire body became motionless. That one mistake of a car driver ruined the life of the young boy.”

As Sachin battles for life in the ATC, the main concern of doctors attending to him is that he should not get an infection, as that will reduce his chances of survival.