Profile of Emergency Department Casualties and Their Injuries

Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center kept data on emergency department visits during the civil disturbance. Out of a total of 568 emergency department visits from Wednesday through Sunday, 2 (45%) were civil disturbance related (Renford, 1992a). Fifty-seven assault and battery, stabbing an gunshot wound victims were received within the first nine hours of the disturbance. Twenty of the injuries were considered life-threatening requiring immediate surgical intervention (Renford, 1992c) This finding is consistent with that developed by the CDC in their survey of two hospitals: 60.7% the admissions required surgery during the first two days (CDC, June 6, 1992). The hospital's daily injury data seems to show that the type of injury tended to group by day (Tabi 24). The most gunshot wounds occurred on Wednesday, followed by lacerations on Thursday, and assault and battery injuries on Friday. One emergency department physician speculated that the amount of looting increased on Thursday (lacerations), followed by arguments over the division of stolen goods on Friday and Saturday (assaults) (see Wait, 1967, for 1967 data supporting the gun s lacerations pattern). This data supports the overall injury profile (Table 24) in that the most violent day appears to have been Wednesday when a large number of gunshot wounds and assaults occur Most of those with gunshot wounds arrived by ambulance. In contrast to the limited CDC data, about 70% of the most serious injured arrived by private automobile. Daniel Freeman Medical Center did not see exactly the same injury profile over time. As with King, patients came from the immediate area surrounding the hospital. Those with serious head trauma and lacerations arrived at the hospital first. Some of those injuries probably resulted from several automobile crashes where the victim was thrown from the car or a pedestrian hit. On Thursday there were more cuts, burns, and abrasions but not gunshot wounds or stabbings. Vehicles also struck many children due to erratic driving and jaywalking. The patients were ethnically mixed with Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, and Euro-Americans all coming in during the same time period. Saint Francis Medical Center saw fourteen gunshot wound victims on Wednesday night. The volume of trauma patients, particularly with stab wounds, increased Thursday morning. Most of these came from areas not typically served by the hospital. A lull occurred that afternoon. Looting then began to take place close to the hospital, followed by an increase in patients with major lacerations. Many patients with gunshot wounds and serious assaults came in by private car. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center did have to close its doors to routine emergencies so that civil disturbance related casualties could be handled (Stein, 1992). It is interesting to note that White Memorial Hospital saw some elderly patients who had taken the wrong medication because of power failures (HCSC, 1992).

Medical Care for the Injured

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