Clinical Observation of a Favorable Outcome After Severe Injury Due to the Fall From the Sixteenth Storey

Abstract

Introduction. Catatrauma is one of the main causes of childhood injuries and deaths in Russia. The severity of the condition of catatrauma is caused by combined injuries, high disability and lethality depend on them. Most often, children fall from the balconies of houses, windows, trees, and playgrounds. The purpose of the study was to show, on a clinical example, the case of a fall of a child from the height of the 16th storey of a dwelling house and the survival with a favorable outcome. Material and methods. The clinical example demonstrates the provision of medical care to a 5 years old child with catatrauma in a metropolis. After falling from a critical height (48 m) at the prehospital stage, he was assisted by ambulance brigades, and transportation was carried out by a helicopter. At the hospital stage, the victim was treated at the Research Institute of Emergency Surgery and Traumatology, where all departments of the clinic were involved. Results. This clinical case is unique in that the child, having fallen from the 16th sorey, from a height of more than 48 m, having received multiple combined injuries with an ISS score of 34 points, survived. An outcome was favorable due to the fact that the child was dressed in winter clothes with a jacket hooded over his head and fell into the snow, as well as coordinated actions of the services and units providing medical care at the prehospital and hospital stages in the metropolis. Conclusion. A favorable outcome after the child had fallen from a critical height, was affected by facts that both the child was dressed in winter clothes with a hood and a hat, put on the head, falling into the snow, and the coordinated activity of the structures and units participating in the prehospital and hospital stages of medical care.