Crush Injuries from Explosions

When explosions cause parts of a wall to fall or pieces of brick to fly through the air, people get injured. These injuries are called crush injuries. There are many types of crush injuries and there are many causes of explosion crush injuries. The one thing they have in common is that the injuries they cause can be life-altering. Although all parts of the body can suffer injuries. The legs are most commonly affected during collapses, followed by arms, and then the torso. These injuries can cause bleeding, bruising, bone fracture, nerve damage, compartment syndrome, and, in some instances, death.

Examples of Explosion Crush Injuries

• A husband and wife are on their porch grilling when their grill explodes, causing the wall to cave in. The wall falls on top of the husband and crushes his leg.
• A house explodes while a couple are in their basement. The explosion causes the ceiling to fall on top of them; they suffer broken bones and need substantial medical care after the explosion.
• Two employees are working on a catwalk when an explosion occurs. The employees are thrown to the ground, and the catwalk falls on top of them. The employees suffer broken bones from the fall and crush injuries from the catwalk falling on them.
• A person working on an oil well is killed when the well explodes and workers are struck by large pieces of metal flying off of the oil well.
• A person is standing on a ladder when an explosion occurs. The person falls to the ground and is severely injured when a large steel plate crushes their legs.
• An employee of a company is welding piping on a large oil tank when an explosion occurs, causing the employee to fall and the tank to fall on top of the employee.
• A person is killed when a bulk storage tank explodes, sending a steel cover into the air and striking the person’s head.
• A person is killed when their head is crushed by a steel pipe after it exploded off of an air compressor unit.
• An employee of a gas station is killed when an explosion occurs as the employee is transferring diesel fuel from one truck to another. The employee is pushed to the ground and suffers broken bones and other internal injuries caused by the explosion.
• An employee is struck by an oil storage tanker lid when the oil storage tanker that the employee is standing next to explodes.
• A person is sitting in their home when a propane explosion causes their wall to collapse and crush them. They suffer major injuries to their bones and internal organs.

Crush Syndrome ( Traumatic Rhabdomyolysis or Bywaters’ Syndrome)

When a crush injury restricts blood flow to skeletal muscles, the decreased oxygen level triggers the release of more myoglobin (an oxygen-carrying protein) into the bloodstream. As the muscle breaks down, electrolytes are also released. When the trapped body part is suddenly freed, the elevated levels of myoglobin and electrolytes re-enter the circulatory system where they can trigger heart or kidney failure.

Compartment Syndrome

In the arms and legs, a compartment is a group of muscles, nerves and blood vessels surrounded by fascia, a strong tissue that cannot expand. When this kind of injury injury causes bleeding or swelling in the compartment, pressure can build up in the compartment and restrict blood flow, causing permanent damage that can lead to amputation if untreated.

With an overall incidence rate of 0.1 per 10,000 people, severe crush injuries are uncommon.*  Roughly 20 percent of natural disaster victims and 40 percent of building collapse victims suffer these kinds of injuries. About 5 percent of all of these injuries prove fatal.

Information on other types of explosion injuries

• burns
• smoke inhalation
• brain injury
• lung injury
• heart damage
• eardrum rupture
• eye damage

Sources

http://www.cdc.gov/masstrauma/preparedness/primer.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11773459