FOX28: Hot Health Headlines - Trauma & Falls

OhioHealth Grant Medical Center is the busiest trauma center in Ohio. When watching the local news or reading the newspaper, you’ll read about many gunshot victims, stabbing victims and victims of motor vehicle accidents coming to Grant for trauma care. But, believe it or not, those are not the most common reasons for patients being sent to Grant. Grant actually sees more trauma patients from falls than from any other injury. Many of those falls are happening right in the patients’ homes. Shay O’Mara, MD, medical director of trauma services at Grant and system chief, trauma and acute care surgery for OhioHealth, recently appeared on FOX28’s Good Day Columbus to talk about preventing falls, as well as other hot health headlines.

Preventing Falls

According to Dr. O’Mara, most falls at home happen due to balance issues, especially in older adults. Risk factors for falls include:

• Lower body weakness
• Gait/balance problems
• Poor vision
• Certain medications
• Problems with feet/shoes

Ways to prevent falls include:

• If you’ve fallen recently, let your doctor know; they can help determine if something else is going on
• Look for hazards at home: poor lighting, trip hazards, rugs, etc.

Study 1: Traumas that happen in rural areas take too long to get to a larger facility for care

One third of our population lives in rural areas, but half of deaths from motor vehicle crashes happen in those areas. Every minute counts when someone needs to get to a trauma center. This study looked at the rural trauma team development course and found that those smaller trauma hospitals that completed this course were able to transfer trauma victims to larger trauma centers faster.

Study 2: Gun violence

A national trauma society looked at the literature that exists surrounding gun violence and saw there was very little literature on the topic. The literature that does exist was split on if concealed carry laws help to prevent death or injury from gun violence.

Watch the video above for Dr. O’Mara’s interview on these topics.