What should you know about crush injuries?

On Behalf of | Mar 22, 2023 | Motor Vehicle Accidents |

Crush injuries are among the most severe injuries that a person could deal with. Unfortunately, they have numerous life-altering or even fatal impacts.

What do crush injuries look like? How do they happen? And what are the biggest risks related to them?

Sources of crush injuries

Up To Date discusses the impact of a crush injury on a person. Crush injuries involve any part of the body, or even the entirety of the body, when it gets crushed, flattened, pinned or otherwise compressed by one or more larger and/or heavier objects.

Common sources of crush injuries in America include car accidents and job accidents. Fields like construction and industrial work often have higher rates of crush injury incidents due to the machinery and equipment used on the job.

However, it is important to note that any job comes with some small amount of crush risk. After all, a person could suffer from a crush injury by slamming their hand into a door or having a box or other large item fall onto them.

The complications of crush injuries

Crush injuries often come along with severe risks of complications. For example, crush injuries affecting the limbs and extremities have a risk of gangrene and necrotic tissue infection that could lead to amputation. Crush injuries to the torso can lead to the possibility of organ damage or failure.

On top of that, any form of crush injury can develop sepsis, which can prove fatal in 72 hours after symptoms first appear with some types.

This is why crush injury victims need quick medical treatment to avoid worst outcome scenarios.