Chapter 17- Injuries

Chapter 17- Injuries
The word injury is derived from the Latin word for “not right.” Injuries occur due to acute exposure to physical agents such as mechanical energy, heat, electricity, chemicals, and ionizing radiation interacting with the body in amounts or at rates that exceed the threshold of human tolerance. Unintentional injuries are injuries that are judged to have occurred without anyone intending for harm to be done. An intentional injury is an injury where it has been purposely inflicted, such as assaults, and intentional stabbings or shootings. An unsafe act is an behavior that would increase the probability of an unintentional injury. An unsafe condition is any environmental factor that would increase the probability of an unintentional injury. Unsafe acts and unsafe conditions are hazards. Each year in the United States more than 150,000 people die from fatal injuries. That is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Disabling injuries are injuries that restrict activity beyond the day of the injury. Children and teenagers are more at risk to die from a firearm injury than anyone else. Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injury for those 80 years and older. Males at any age are more likely than females to suffer from an unintentional injury. 47.4% of all unintentional injuries and poisoning occurred in the persons home. More people die in bedrooms where they may be sleeping during a fire than any other room. The workplace is the fourth leading place where unintentional injuries occur. More than 13% of all injuries reported in the National Health Interview survey in 2004 were sustained on streets, highways, and parking lots. It is proven that the deaths that occur in the six major holidays from car accidents is not any higher than any other time of the year. However, the proportion of fatal crashes that are alcohol related is higher during holiday periods. Injury prevention education is the process of changing peoples health directed behavior in such a way as to reduce unintentional injuries. The speed limit law change is an example of regulation- the enactment and enforcement of laws to control conduct as a means of reducing the number and seriousness of unintentional injuries. The technique of improving product or environmental design to reduce unintentional injuries is called automatic protection. Litigations are lawsuits filed by injured victims or their families. Firearms were the 2nd leading cause of injury deaths in 2002. Child maltreatment is an act or failure to act by a parent or caretaker defined by the law that results in physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse. Child abuse can be physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual. Child neglect is a type of maltreatment that refers to the failure by the parent or legal caretaker to provide necessary, age appropriate care when financially able.

I was unaware that injuries have so many different categories. The unintentional injuries or intentional injures. Previously I thought that all injuries were just under one category. It makes a lot more sense the way things are done now though. By categorizing the injuries it helps specialist know where they have to put more focus on. It was surprising that the fifth leading cause of death was from fatal injuries. I would have thought that it would have been a lot lower because there are so many diseases in the world today I didn’t think an accidental injury would be near the too. It made a lot of sense that most of the injuries suffered by people over the age of 80 are from falls. That wasn’t very surprising at all. Older people have a hard time getting around and need more help so they can reduce the number of falls they suffer. More people dieing in the bedroom wasn’t all that shocking either. The bedroom is where the majority of the people spend the most of their time so it would make sense that is where the most injuries occur. Also when people are sleeping they are unaware of fires and other harmful things. Males suffer more from females makes a lot of sense. Car insurance companies are obviously aware of this and that is why boys are charged more for car insurance than females. It is very surprising to see that the speed limit law was changed even after all the preaching that speed kills. You would expect the speed limit to be increased if that is the case.