Major injuries and deaths while trying to cross the wall of the Mexican border have risen after the Trump administration built a larger structure, a new report shows.
Driving the News: The number of patients arriving at the UC San Diego Medical Center’s trauma ward has increased more than fivefold since 2019 – when the height of the border wall was raised to 30 feet across much of the California border – in compared to the period before found by doctors from UC San Diego.
- Deaths from falls have risen from zero before 2019 to 16 thereafter, according to a research letter published in the medical journal JAMA Surgery.
- Between 2016 and 2018, there were 67 falling tolerances from the border wall, compared to 375 between 2019 and 2021.
- “Most of these patients have had significant brain and facial injuries or complex fractures of the limbs or spine, many of which require intensive care and gradual surgical reconstruction,” the doctors wrote.
- Most of the patients do not have health insurance and do not qualify for rehabilitation programs or physiotherapy, “further prolonging the long hospital stay,” the doctors write.
The big picture: Former President Trump has promised to build a wall along the southern border when he takes office.
- His efforts led to new 30-foot high barriers, with miles of double-walled steel fencing. The administration has built bigger barriers in the San Diego area than anywhere else on the border, writes the Washington Post.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they do not account for deaths and injuries from such falls, the Post said.
What they say: “Once you go over 20 feet to 30 feet, the chances of serious injury and death are higher,” Jay Dussett, head of trauma at UC San Diego Health, told the Post.
- “We see injuries we haven’t seen before: pelvic fractures, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and many open fractures when bone passes through the skin.”
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