We were involved in a head-on collision with a driver who claims she "fell asleep." The car was totaled. Both front seat airbags deployed on impact. I was driving and my left arm was broken. The passenger side seat belt did not restrain my wife. She met the larger airbag halfway and all of her ribs were fractured and her lung was punctured. Four vertebrae and her right ankle were also fractured. Her left knee hit the dashboard and rammed her femur back through her pelvis, requiring evacuation to the UMD Shock-Trauma Center, where she was sedated, intubated and her left leg put in traction that employed a contraption that was tortuous, involving a spike pushed between her tibia and fibula below her left knee.
Being completely immobilized for 3-4 days before the surgery caused two pressure sores that took over 3 months to heal. The 7 hour surgery rebuilt the socket in her pelvis and replaced the top portion of her damaged femur. She had to wear a full body cast to immobilize her torso until her spinal fractures mended and was in a rehab facility and follow up rehab for months.
I believe the seat belt failed to do what it was ostensibly designed to do, causing preventable pain and suffering.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
We were involved in a head-on collision with a driver who claims she "fell asleep." The car was totaled. Both front seat airbags deployed on impact. I was driving and my left arm was broken. The passenger side seat belt did not restrain my wife. She met the larger airbag halfway and all of her ribs were fractured and her lung was punctured. Four vertebrae and her right ankle were also fractured. Her left knee hit the dashboard and rammed her femur back through her pelvis, requiring evacuation to the UMD Shock-Trauma Center, where she was sedated, intubated and her left leg put in traction that employed a contraption that was tortuous, involving a spike pushed between her tibia and fibula below her left knee.
Being completely immobilized for 3-4 days before the surgery caused two pressure sores that took over 3 months to heal. The 7 hour surgery rebuilt the socket in her pelvis and replaced the top portion of her damaged femur. She had to wear a full body cast to immobilize her torso until her spinal fractures mended and was in a rehab facility and follow up rehab for months.
I believe the seat belt failed to do what it was ostensibly designed to do, causing preventable pain and suffering.
- edmorris1951, Bowie, MD, US