COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS BY PATIENTS REGARDING ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

1.             Can a RTA victim be treated at any hospital in India?

                              RTA are all medico legal cases.  All Government Hospitals and Private Hospitals authorized by the Legal Authority like commissioner of Police maintain MLC registers and can treat RTA victims.  However first aid can be offered by any doctor.  No doctor can refuse first aid to RTA victim.

2.             A person with blunt injury abdomen sustains splenic lacerations.  Only splenectomy can save patient.  Can person survive without spleen.  If so what complications will be expected?.

                        Spleen does not perform much functions in an adult.  It only serves to remove senescent RBCs and plays a role in immune functions of body.  A person can live without spleen.  However he must be immunized against infections with capsulated organisms like pneumococcus, meningococcus.

3.             What is prognosis of head injury patients?.

                        There can be no single answer for this question.  Head injury could imply haemorrhage, which can be extra dural, subdural, subarachnoid, intracerebral or intra ventricular.  A pontine haemorrhage means 100% mortality.  Intraventricular haemorrhage can raise ICT, cause coning and death.

Extradural, subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhages can all cause death or varying levels of residual neurological defects.

4.             A person suffers extensive loss of skin (degloving injury):  Can skin grow back over such large defects.  How can he be managed?

                    For extensive skin loss, Grafting can be done.  Usually graft is taken from thighs.  They are placed only after infection at wound site is controlled.

5.             In a RTA  a person’s right index finger gets severed.  Fortunately it is not crushed;  should the finger be brought to the hospital ; If so how?

                         Hand reconstructive surgery is an emerging branch of plastic surgery where such surgeries are now being performed with success.  The severed finger should be transported to the hospital in a plastic bag, which is placed inside another polythene bag with ice in it.  The surgeon then assesses the success rate & viability of such a surgery

6.             How much can a person safely drink before driving?

             The legal limit for alcohol in blood while driving is 50 mg/dl.  But even small amounts can impair judgment and decision making.  So best policy would be If you want to drive – do not drink.

If you drink do not drive.

7.             A young girl sustains a scalp laceration.  Parents are worried whether hair will grow again over the sutured region.

When cut edges of skin of scalp are approximated by sutures, it heals by primary intention leaving behind thin scar.  Hair cannot grow in scar tissue.  But if suture approximation is good, the resulting scar will not be significant enough to cause cosmetic problem.

8.             Why is Tetanus toxoid  injection a must in RTA injuries?

Spores of Clostridium tetani are found in soil.  They grow readily under anaerobic conditions.  In any wound, devitalized tissue is present, which favours Cl.tetani, hence TT injection is given in all cases of RTA Injuries.