Future trauma care patients

That's what my sister, an RN who used to work trauma, calls people who don't wear their seatbelts. In her more mordant moods, she has been known to thank people for keeping the trauma center - or better (or worse, as you like), the pediatric trauma center - open and employing lots of people.

Governor Corzine makes her point. Over at Respectful Insolence, Orac (who is, I remind you, a surgeon) runs it down for us:

Corzine's injuries include:

1. Large scalp laceration.
2. Fractured clavicle.
3. Fractured sternum. I point out that it takes a really high-energy hit to the chest to fracture a sternum.
4. Fractured ribs, six on each side. It sounds as though this may well have been enough to give Governor Corzine a flail chest, a condition where there is paradoxical movement of the chest wall inward with each breath using the diaphragm, severely compromising respiration. No wonder he's still on a ventilator. Given his sternal fracture and multiple rib fractures, Corzine almost certainly also has a nasty underlying pulmonary contusion that could easily blossom into ARDS, which could kill him if it develops. (If enough force hits you to break your sternum and multiple ribs, it's a good bet that it banged around the underlying lung tissue as well.) Corzine's chest injuries are certainly his most life-threatening injuries at this point.
5. Fractured lower vertebrae.
6. An open, comminuted femur fracture with a large laceration and muscle damage.

Corzine required seven units of blood and needed to undergo surgery to fix his femur. Even if he does not suffer complications from his chest injury, such as pneumonia and ARDS, he will likely not be able to walk again for months, and will require more surgeries to wash out the damaged and devitalized tissue and to complete the repair of his femur.

...I'm not saying that Corzine wouldn't have been injured if he had been wearing his seatbelts, but it's very likely that his injuries would have been considerably less severe. Contrary to the myth of "being thrown free" of an accident to survive, those who are thrown, either through the windshield or a window or around the car's interior, suffer more serious injuries by far. They are far more likely to die. Had Corzine been wearing his seatbelt, he might even have walked away from the collision. I note that the only completely uninjured person in the car, an aide, was wearing his seatbelt. The state trooper who was driving suffered relatively minor injuries. He, too, was apparently wearing his seatbelt.

People - please. Seatbelts really are a good idea (not just the law).