North Carolina Motorcycle Accident Lawyers

Medical Treatments For North Carolina Motorcycle Crash Victims

The probability of special medical treatments for motorcycle crash victims without relating them to helmet use. Bried et al. found that 66 percent of their hospital-admitted sample required surgery, and 36 percent required a second surgical procedure; 52 percent were held in the ICU for an average of 3.3 days; 30 percent required a ventilator, for an average of 6 days; 38 percent required blood transfusions. They also found that the average hospital-admitted patient sustained 2.4 fractures. Rutledge & Stutts found that 6.8 percent of patients admitted to North Carolina trauma centers were discharged to a nursing home or rehabilitation center.

Given the long recovery times and potential long-term nature of motorcycling injuries, an important crash outcome for survivors is disability. Bried et al. found that 12 of their 71 hospital-admitted patients did not return to baseline functioning, while the other 59 fully recovered in an average of 23 weeks. Murdock & Waxman found that nonhelmeted patients treated in a trauma center were more likely to be disabled than helmeted patients (9 percent vs. 5 percent). Disability results not only in increased medical costs, but in reduced lifetime earning potential and reduced quality of life.

A few studies provided fatality rates. Stutts et al. reported that 7.1 percent of their trauma registry sample died, compared with just 2.7 percent of the broader crash file. Braddock et al. found a population-based fatality rate of 1.2 per 100,000. They also found that the fatality rate was 3.4 times higher for nonhelmeted riders. Four other articles also looked at the impact of helmets on fatality rates. The fatality rate was higher for nonhelmeted patients in Rowland et al.’s hospital-admitted sample (4.7 percent vs. 2.9 percent), Kelly et al.’s ED sample (7.35 percent vs. 1.72 percent), and McSwain & Belles’s Louisiana crash sample (6.2 percent vs. 1.6 percent), while in Offner et al.’s trauma center sample, nonhelmeted patients had a lower fatality rate (7.7 percent vs. 9.1 percent), though this last difference was not statistically significant. Miller et al. estimated that 100 percent helmet use would have reduced the number of motorcycling fatalities in 1991 from 2,760 to 2,270. NHTSA found that wearing a helmet reduces the probability of fatality by 35 percent.

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