Cases consume scarce resources but are not overwhelming capacity
Health care workers examine a patient who recently fell from the U.S.-Mexico border wall at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. Speaking through an interpreter, the patient declined to be identified. So far in 2024, severe injuries caused by falls from the U.S.-Mexico border wall are up 58 percent compared to 2023, and that number will increase, as the annual total for this year is not yet complete.
Why is this increase occurring? The U.S. Border Patrol did not provide an answer when asked, and the two health systems directly receiving the bulk of trauma cases also were reluctant to cite any specific cause. While the increased demand for expensive trauma services, especially the orthopedic surgeries often required by those who fracture lower limbs, pelvic bones and heel bones, consumes resources, neither facility’s leadership said that the increased flow has overwhelmed treatment capacity.
Imagine, he said, a large number of people climbing a relatively small section of the wall simultaneously and causing a collapse. Some might wonder if those falling from the border wall are doing so out of a desire to file an asylum claim from inside the United States, given that so many who do so from south of the border do not succeed.
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