The expansion of the Mexico-US border wall crossing has been accompanied by a rising toll of serious injuries, with poor discharge care and a lack of appropriate interpreting facilities adding up to a "humanitarian and health crisis," suggest researchers in the open access journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. Thirty eight different nationalities and 21 languages other than Spanish were represented among those attempting to cross one segment of the wall in 2021 and 2022, say the researchers. The Mexico-US border wall was extended by 50 miles and raised to a height of 30 feet in Southern California, construction of which was completed in 2019, they explain.
Since then, trauma centers in Southern California have reported an increase in the numbers and severity of cerebrovascular, orthopedic, and spinal injuries caused by border wall falls, they add. To obtain a clearer picture of the nationalities of injured migrants and what happens to them after hospital treatment, the researchers retrospectively reviewed the hospital and medical records of injured patients admitted to an academic, Level 1 Trauma Center after attempting to cross one section of the US-Mexico border wall in 2021 and 2022. They identified 597 patients who were injured while crossing the San Diego segment of the US-Mexico border wall from 38 different countries.
Their average age was 32, and 3 out of 4 (446; 75%) were men. Just over two thirds (405; 68%) were Mexican. Of the rest, nationals from Peru (23; 4%).