• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.282-286
• /
• 2022

Complete cricotracheal separation, which is the most severe type of laryngeal trauma, is an uncommonly seen injury that clinicians have limited experience in managing. However, it is potentially fatal. Due to limited exposure to this condition, mismanagement can occur, which may further aggravate the patient's condition. The most crucial part of managing this injury is to establish a secure airway. Tracheostomy under local anesthesia is the preferred method of airway stabilization, in order to avoid further injuries to the airway caused by endotracheal intubation. Here, we discuss the management of complete cricotracheal separation based on a case experienced in the east coast region of Malaysia, where this type of injury is rarely encountered.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2020.12a
• /
• pp.179-187
• /
• 2020

This paper investigates the construction equipment accidents by time. Construction sites are unique with many different hazardous conditions which cause accidents. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), accidents related to construction equipment are one of the most leading causes of fatal injuries in the construction industry. While there have been many studies investigating the equipment-related accidents, few research studies provided in-depth analyses about the time that accidents frequently occurred. By using the OSHA accidents data collected between 1997 and 2012, this paper analyzed the accidents data by time, equipment type including excavator, backhoe, dozer, and crane, accident cause, and injury class. The analyses revealed that the time window with most accidents was between 13:00 and 13:59. In terms of the injury class, the time windows with the highest numbers of equipment accidents were between 13:00 and 13:59 and between 11:00 and 11:59 for fatality and hospitalization, respectively. For the accident causes, equipment operator's error was the highest number of accident causes. It is expected that findings from the analyses can be used to more strategically develop management plans and guidelines to prevent accidents related to construction equipment to practitioners.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.313-316
• /
• 2015

Construction is one of the most dangerous job sectors, which reports tens of thousands of time-loss injuries and deaths every year. These disasters incur delays and additional costs to the projects. The safety management needs to be on the top primary tasks throughout the construction to avoid fatal accidents and to foster safe working environments. One of the safety regulations that are frequently violated is the wearing of personal protection equipment (PPE). In order to facilitate monitoring of the compliance of the PPE wearing regulations, this paper proposes a vision based method that automatically identifies whether workers wear hard hats and safety vests. The method involves three modules - human body detection, identification of safety vest wearing, and hard hat detection. First, human bodies are detected in the video frames captured by real-time on-site construction cameras. The detected human bodies are classified into with/without wearing safety vests based on the color features of their upper parts. Finally, hard hats are detected on the nearby regions of the detected human bodies and the locations of the detected hard hats and human bodies are correlated to reveal their corresponding matches. In this way, the proposed method provides any appearance of the workers without wearing hard hats or safety vests. The method has been tested on onsite videos and the results signify its potential to facilitate site safety monitoring.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.249-252
• /
• 2023

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare but fatal condition, with a high mortality rate. NMS is characterized by altered mental status, fever, myoclonus, autonomic dysfunctions, and elevated creatinine phosphokinase. The clinical manifestations may be confused with alcohol-related symptoms, trauma, sepsis, postoperative agitation, or malignant hyperthermia. A 69-year-old male patient with alcohol withdrawal was admitted to the operating theatre to rule out septic shock due to mesenteric injury after multiple trauma. He was suspected NMS with abrupt increase body temperature to 41.7℃ after haloperidol administration. Active cooling and rapid fluid infusion was done during anesthesia. Delayed diagnosis and treatment of NMS lead to catastrophic result. Therefore, if the patient's past medical history is unknown or clinical symptoms develop that are suggestive of NMS, early treatment must be considered.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.281-285
• /
• 2023

Traumatic uterine rupture is uncommon but can be fatal and life-threatening for both the mother and infant. In addition to complications caused by trauma itself, such as pelvic fracture, gestational complications such as placental abruption, abortion, premature labor, rupture of membranes, maternal death, and stillbirth can occur. In particular, fetuses have been reported to have a high mortality rate in cases of traumatic uterine rupture. A 35-year-old pregnant female patient fell from the fourth floor and was admitted to our trauma center. We observed large hemoperitoneum, pelvic fractures, and spleen laceration, and the fetus was presumed to be located outside the uterus. The pregnant woman was hemodynamically unstable. Although the fetus was stillborn, angioembolization and surgical treatment were properly performed through collaboration with an interventional radiologist, obstetrician, and trauma surgeons. After two orthopedic operations, the patient was discharged after 34 days. This case report suggests the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of pregnant trauma patients.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.224-227
• /
• 2024

In Korea, helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) with a physician on board were introduced in September 2011, funded by both central and regional governments. HEMS was integrated into the Korean emergency medical system to address the need for EMS in remote rural areas. The present report describes 16-month-old twins who fell from the fifth floor of an apartment building, located approximately 100 km from the nearest level I trauma center. Utilizing HEMS along with initial emergency management by an emergency physician, the patients were transported to the level I trauma center within the critical "golden hour." The children had sustained multiorgan injuries. Without intervention at the scene by an emergency physician, a fatal outcome was anticipated for both children. With the use of HEMS, one patient died, but the other survived with a good prognosis. The use of HEMS flights with an emergency physician on board may improve outcomes for pediatric patients with severe trauma in medically underserved rural areas.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.8 no.11
• /
• pp.1785-1792
• /
• 2013

For patients suffering from spinal cord injuries, both of the possibility of having complications with the respiratory system and the related fatal rate are still high, while pneumonia is the most important cause of these fatalities. This research was carried out to find out what effects does a breathing exercise have on the respiratory functions and the improvement in the quality of life. The study was carried out for male patients suffering cervical spinal cord injuries for the purpose of inspiratory muscle strengthening. The objects of the study were 17 non-smoking-at-present male patients with C4 to C6 cervical spinal cord injuries. They had practiced inspiratory muscle strengthening training for three times a week for six weeks. The quality of life and the dyspnea (breathing difficulty) were self-measured before and after the training. As a result, the change in respiratory function was only significantly reduced (p<0.01) within the chronic group. In terms of the changes in the quality of life, the sub-acute group has only seen a significant improvement (p<0.05) for the VT(vitality), while the chronic group has seen significant improvements(p<0.05, p<0.01) in: GH(general health); BP(back pain); and VT(vitality). In this research, the inspiratory muscle strengthening has reduced the dyspnea (breathing difficulties) and improved the quality of life.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.294-301
• /
• 2010

This study was performed to improve the utilization of the ROPS and seatbelt of tractors in Korea. We surveyed the ROPS and seatbelt use and the tractor related accidents through the personal interviews for 141 farmers. And comfort test for tractor seatbelts is done for 4 different subjects by measuring the body pressure distribution. The survey showed that 79.3% of the tractor accidents was overturning accidents. And, in case the tractor has ROPS and seatbelt, there was no serious injuries. With this results, we could confirm that ROPS and seatbelt is very effective devices for protecting drivers in overturning accidents. But, in case farmers didn't wear seatbelt, there was some fatal injuries. This shows the importance of the seatbelt use in working and driving tractors. Therefore, we tested the comfort of the tractor seatbelt for 4 different subjects operating the pedal in tractor seat simulator and in the tractor running on various roads. From the results of the static test in the Lab, it was shown that more the seatbelt anchorage point is far form SIP point, more the body pressure of the belly became higher, and more the subjects feel uncomfortable. Not only in the static test in the simulator, but also in the dynamic test in riding tractors, it was shown that non retractable seatbelt was more uncomfortable than retractable seatbelt. According to this study, we concluded that we need to promote the utilization of the ROPS and seatbelt use. And, the non retractable seatbelt need to be replaced by retractable seatbelt. Also, we recommend that the seatbelt anchorage position should to be in the seatbelt anchorage area of the ISO 3776 standard.

• The Journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.44-57
• /
• 2019

'Vision Zero' is a fundamental response to rapidly increasing number of traffic accidents. It was first introduced in Sweden in the late 20th century and is spreading worldwide. 'Vision Zero' criticizes an existing traffic safety policy that presupposes a reasonable human beings. It suggests that traffic safety policies should be on the possibility of making mistakes by irrational beings. Under the ethical vision that human life and health cannot be exchanged for any other social benefits, the policy issue should allow to make zero out the death rate and serious injuries of traffic accidents while allowing minor injuries. 'Vision Zero' argues that the government should design an environment in which individual mistakes never lead to fatal accidents. 'Vision Zero', which shows a different perspective from existing policies regarding safety ultimate goal, is spreading from traffic safety to other areas such as health, safety and well-being. This study examines the implication of the Korea's school safety policy from the perspectives of 'Vision Zero' on the five areas : "for what", "from what", "by what", "by whom", and "how". The study is intended to establish a new directions and challenges of school safety policy in Korea through an analytical discussions on 'Vision Zero'.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.40 no.8
• /
• pp.558-563
• /
• 2007

Background: Traumatic aortic rupture is a highly fatal condition in which a patient's outcome is strongly affected by other associated injuries. Selection of the appropriate surgical timing and the management plan is important. Material and Method: The medical records of the 15 traumatic descending thoracic aortic rupture patients who underwent the clamp & sew technique were retrospectively reviewed and checked for the presence of associated injuries and the postoperative course. Result: The hospital mortality was 6.07% (one patient). This patient died intra-operatively and the cause of the death was delayed hemoperitoneum. The mean operative time and aortic clamp time were $231{\pm}53.1$ and $13.1{\pm}5.3$ minutes, respectively. One patient complained the bowel obstructive symptoms at postoperative 10 days. We found the mechanical bowel obstruction on computed tomography of the abdomen, and segmental bowel resection was done. Conclusion: Although several surgical strategies may be appropriate for managing traumatic aortic rupture, the clamp & sew technique is a safe and effective method for the treatment of traumatic aortic injury.