Lagan Sarah, Haines Laura, Waters Gabriella, Santorelli Jarrett, Berndtson Allison E, Doucet Jay, Costantini Todd W, Adams Laura
University of California San Diego Health Sciences, La Jolla, California, USA.
Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.
Trauma Surg Acute Care Open. 2024 May 28;9(1):e001308. doi: 10.1136/tsaco-2023-001308. eCollection 2024.
Socio-economic and political events of recent years have caused a significant increase in immigrants attempting to illegally cross the United States (US)-Mexico border. While a 30-foot border wall separates the US and Mexico, immigrants from around the world have used this location as their point of entry to the US. These border crossings have led to a dramatic increase in major trauma resulting in increased inpatient resource utilization and the need for comprehensive hospital services. The aim of this study was to describe the nationality of injured immigrants admitted to a Trauma Center serving a segment of the US-Mexico border wall and to report their ultimate destinations after discharge.
We performed a retrospective review of patients admitted to an academic, Level 1 Trauma Center after injury at the US-Mexico border wall from 2021 to 2022. Demographic information was obtained from the trauma registry. The electronic medical record was searched to identify each patient's self-reported country of origin. Patients' nationality was then stratified by region of the world to understand geographic representation of border injury admissions.
We identified 597 patients injured while crossing the US-Mexico border wall representing 38 different countries. The mean age of patients was 32.2±10.4 years and 446 (75%) were male. Most patients (405, 67.8%) were Mexican, followed by 23 (3.9%) patients from Peru, 17 (2.8%) patients from India, 14 (2.3%) patients from El Salvador, 13 (2.2%) patients from Cuba and 12 (2.0%) patients from Jamaica. When considering regions of the world other than Mexico, patients were most commonly from Africa, South America and Central America.
The increased volume of trauma associated with the US-Mexico border wall is a humanitarian and health crisis.(1) The diverse national origin of patients admitted after injury from border wall falls has shed new light on the social and interpreter services needed to care for these border injury patients and the challenges that exist in their post-discharge care.
近年来的社会经济和政治事件导致试图非法穿越美国与墨西哥边境的移民数量大幅增加。虽然一道30英尺高的边境墙将美国和墨西哥隔开，但来自世界各地的移民都将此地作为进入美国的入口。这些边境过境导致重大创伤急剧增加，从而使住院资源利用率上升，对综合医院服务的需求也增加。本研究的目的是描述入住一家为美国与墨西哥边境墙部分区域提供服务的创伤中心的受伤移民的国籍，并报告他们出院后的最终目的地。
我们对2021年至2022年在美国与墨西哥边境墙受伤后入住一家学术性一级创伤中心的患者进行了回顾性研究。人口统计学信息从创伤登记处获取。通过检索电子病历以确定每位患者自我报告的原籍国。然后按世界区域对患者的国籍进行分层，以了解边境受伤入院患者的地理分布情况。
我们确定了597名在穿越美国与墨西哥边境墙时受伤的患者，他们代表38个不同国家。患者的平均年龄为32.2±10.4岁，446名（75%）为男性。大多数患者（405名，67.8%）是墨西哥人，其次是23名（3.9%）来自秘鲁的患者、17名（2.8%）来自印度的患者、14名（2.3%）来自萨尔瓦多的患者、13名（2.2%）来自古巴的患者和12名（2.0%）来自牙买加 的患者。在考虑除墨西哥以外的世界其他地区时，患者最常来自非洲、南美洲和中美洲。
与美国与墨西哥边境墙相关的创伤数量增加是一场人道主义和健康危机。（1）边境墙受伤后入院患者的不同国籍为护理这些边境受伤患者所需的社会和口译服务以及他们出院后护理中存在的挑战提供了新的视角。
