CHAPTER 24 Flashcards
What is the leading cause of death in the US among people younger than age 44?
Traumatic and unintentional injuries
Occur as a result of physical forces applied to the body
Trauma emergencies
Illnesses or conditions not caused by an outside force.
Medical emergencies
How can a traumatic injury be caused by an underlying medical condition?
A patient has a stroke while driving and veers of the road, striking a tree
How can a medical illness result from a recent traumatic injury?
Pneumonia develops in a patient a few days after a fall that fractures their ribs
Why is it important to evaluate the MOI for a trauma patient?
It will provide you with an index of suspicion for different types of serious and/or life threatening underlying injuries
How does a traumatic injury occur?
When the body’s tissues are exposed to energy levels beyond their tolerance.
The way in which traumatic injuries occur. It describes the force (or energy transmission) acting on the body that cause injury.
Mechanism of Injury (MOI)
What are 3 concepts of energy that are typically associated with injury (not including thermal energy, which causes burns)?
Potential energy, kinetic energy and the energy of work
Energy cannot not be created or destroyed but instead:
Converted or transformed
Who is it important to estimate the height from which a patient fell as well as the surface they landed on?
To fully appreciate the injury potential of the fall
Force acting over a distance
Work
Force x distance = work
What results in the work that causes injury?
Forces that bend, pull, or compress tissue beyond their inherent limits
The energy of a moving object and reflects the relationship between mass (weight) of the object and the velocity (speed) at which it is traveling
Kinetic energy
Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass x velocity2 or
KE 1/2m x v2
In the case of a motor vehicle crash, the kinetic energy of the speeding vehicle is:
Converted into the work of stopping the vehicle
The energy that is available to cause injury ________ when an object’s weight doubles but _________ when it’s speed doubles
Doubles, quadruples
What dictates the severity of an injury
The amount of kinetic energy that is converted to do work on the body
The product of mass (weight), force of gravity, and height and is mostly associated with the energy of falling objects
Potential energy
Newton’s First Law
Objects at rest tend to stay at rest and objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted on by some force
Newton’s Second Law
Force = mass x acceleration
F=m x a
Acceleration is the change in velocity (speed) that occurs over time
Newton’s Third Law
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Two forces are equal but occur in opposite directions.
What type of injury should you suspect if you notice a collapsed steering wheel during a scene size up?
Serious chest injuries