Demographics of the Injured
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LAEMSA and the CDC are conducting a detailed review of two hospital emergency department logs to determine the demographics and other information about the injured. The CDC did an initial abstraction of records and found that: ...only a small percentage of the records (N=24) specifically indicated whether or not the injury was related to the unrest (17%), and only occasionally was the location (8 %), or intention of the injury (21 %) mentioned. In addition, only a minority arrived at the hospital via ambulance (13%). The time needed to find the necessary information when it was available (30-40 minutes per chart) was prohibitive (almost 1,300 person-hours total) for conducting a complete survey for all the disturbance-related injuries (CDC, Sept., 1992). The CDC abstracted 39 records from Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center, and 23 records from Daniel Freeman Medical Center for a total of 62 records. This represents about a 12% sample of the patients seen by these two hospitals. CDC data shows that 41.9% of their sample was injured on Wednesday. Data presented later in this report shows that the two hospitals saw more than a third of their total patients on the first day of the civil disturbance. The injuries were much more serious at this time. Keeping in mind these limitations and those identified above, the results of this initial survey will be used in this report. The majority of sixty-two injury records studied by the CDC found that (62.9%) were between the ages of 15 to 34, with the largest number being 20 to 24. They broke down as follows by sex: 83.9% male, 16. 1 % female. Their place of residence was Los Angeles (63.8 %), Compton (I 3.8 %), or Inglewood (8.6%). Most were unemployed (46%). They tended to be single (54.8%) (CDC, June 6, 1992). |
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Medical Care for the Injured