Gunshot survivors experience chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental health challenges at rates higher than survivors of other traumatic injuries, according to a new study by researchers at Boston鈥檚 Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital.
Researchers from three level I trauma centers in Boston who had survived traumatic injuries like shootings, car crashes and falls. Among survivors of firearm injuries, 68 percent reported daily pain, 59 percent had not returned to work, 53 percent screened positive for PTSD and 39 percent experienced difficulties with daily activities like walking, driving, showering and going to the bathroom. These rates exceeded those of survivors of car crashes and falls.
鈥淲hat those numbers are telling us is that most of the firearm injury survivors are really struggling to come back and have the life they used to have before the injury,鈥� said lead study author Dr. Juan Herrera-Escobar of Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The number of people that survive gunshot injuries in the U.S. is , due to a lack of information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But by any measure, every year.
According to Herrera-Escobar, no trauma registry in the country collects data beyond 30 days after a patient is discharged from the hospital. The lack of that data, he says, makes it challenging to analyze how a survivor鈥檚 health is impacted in the months and years following their initial hospitalization.
鈥淚n some ways the trauma systems are failing to provide optimal care after the patients are discharged from the hospital,鈥� Herrera-Escobar said. 鈥淲e need to get better at guaranteeing the continuing of care throughout the injury up to when the patient is back to their baseline status.鈥�
Sasa Harriott is a registered nurse and founder of Harriott Home Health Services (HHHS), a Hartford, Connecticut-based health agency that provides an array of in-home medical, behavioral and occupational health services. Harriott started HHHS because she saw people within her community struggling to recover from their injuries and access long-term rehabilitation services like therapy and consistent medical assistance.
鈥淭hey go home but then they鈥檙e going back to the hospital a lot because their wounds deteriorate quickly,鈥� Harriott said. 鈥淪o someone may have just have been shot in the leg and that wound to the leg, because they don鈥檛 get care, results in major bone infections and then at that point they need to become amputees.鈥�
Many survivors, she said, go home believing they can manage their injuries but then become overwhelmed.
鈥淭hey have a support system in place that after a while gets burned out quickly,鈥� Harriott said. 鈥淔amily members get burned out, caregiver-role strains starts to sink in but then by then, they鈥檙e no longer connected to the initial agencies that were in place.鈥�
Herrera-Escobar recalled a patient suffering from PTSD who was struggling to find adequate psychiatric services because of language barriers.
鈥淭ranslation in the clinic wasn鈥檛 very helpful for him, as he was not comfortable with sharing all the things he was going through with an extra person in the room,鈥� Herrera-Escobar said. 鈥淪o I think that highlights that there are some structural barriers in the system that we can work on to guarantee that these patients have better access to the service they need in the long-term.鈥�
He says the study highlights that gunshot survivors are a vulnerable population that have special needs when it comes to their recovery and their rehabilitation once they are discharged from the hospital.
鈥淎s trauma systems continue to improve and we keep getting better at saving lives every year,鈥� Herrera-Escobar said, 鈥渙ur attention should start shifting to the impact that firearm injuries have on those who survive.鈥�
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