When you go to your job, you acknowledge the fact that you may run into dangers that are not present in your home life or environment. This is a risk that everyone accepts to varying degrees depending on what their job actually is.
But almost every job sports at least a few major risks. Among them are the risk of a crush injury happening. But just what are these injuries and how do they impact you?
What is a crush injury?
Medline Plus examines the impact of crush injuries on the body. Crush injuries happen during any incident where a part of the body ends up crushed beneath a heavier object. For example, if someone gets pinned by a truck at the waist, this creates a crush injury. If another worker drops a heavy object on their foot, that could also end up a crush injury.
The severity of crush injuries
Crush injuries have different impacts based on a number of factors. They can include your general health, the weight and size of the object that fell on you, and how long it pinned you. However, regardless of the type of injury you face, you will likely deal with potential serious repercussions.
For example, many victims who suffer from hand or foot crush injuries end up with amputations. This is due to a loss of circulation to the area, which causes quick cell death and necrosis. If you end up pinned by the trunk, you could experience damage to the organs due to the way blood supply gets cut off. It can lead to organ death, failure, aneurism, stroke or heart attack.