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Military Weapon Injury Among Illegal Immigrants at the Southern Border of Israel: A Single Level I Trauma Center Series

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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article describes the characteristics of injuries of illegal immigrants admitted to a Level I trauma center after being shot at the southern border of Israel. This is a retrospective descriptive study. Some of the variables were compared to a group of soldiers who sustained penetrating injury at the same region where the illegal migrant were injured. The study includes 162 patients. The lower body absorbed a higher percentage of the injuries (61 %). The hospitalization time is longer for the migrant patients compared to the soldiers (13 ± 2 vs. 3 ± 0.3 days p = 0.0001). This study on wounded immigrants shows that a conjoint military and civilian system can result in favourable outcomes. The manuscript is an attempt to bring this unique situation, its type of injuries, and the difficulties of the health system in coping with it, to the notice of all authorities that may address a similar challenge.

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Notes

  1. ISS is computer calculated on the basis of the maximum abbreviated injury score (AIS) in the 3 most severely injured body regions. A score that is ≥16 reflects severe or critical injuries.

  2. The revised probability of survival (RPS) is a calculated percentage that is a prediction of the patient’s chance of surviving the trauma based on the age of the patient, the ISS, and the revised trauma score (RTS); it is automatically derived from our trauma registry software—Israeli Trauma Registry, ITR, version 2.2.2.14.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tal Shaked for her excellent language editing assistance.

Author’s Contribution

Gad Shaked initiated the study and wrote the manuscript, Avraham Yitzhak took part in the design of the study and in discussing the results, Amir Abramovich participated in writing the manuscript, Gilbert Sebbag helped in designing the study, and critical reviewed the manuscript, Kobi Peleg assisted in data collection, Ehud Davidson attributed to the editing of the manuscript, David Czeiger did the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Soroka University Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University, 64 Wingate Street, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Gad Shaked, Gilbert Sebbag & David Czeiger

  2. Trauma and Combat Medicine Branch, Medical Corps, Surgeon General’s Headquarters, Israel Defense Forces, Jerusalem, Israel

    Avraham Yitzhak & Amir Abramovich

  3. Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Kobi Peleg

  4. Clinical Management, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Ehud Davidson

Authors
  1. Gad Shaked
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  2. Avraham Yitzhak
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  3. Amir Abramovich
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  4. Gilbert Sebbag
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  5. Kobi Peleg
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  6. Ehud Davidson
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  7. David Czeiger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gad Shaked.

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I declare that there is no conflict of interests of any of the authors of this article.

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Shaked, G., Yitzhak, A., Abramovich, A. et al. Military Weapon Injury Among Illegal Immigrants at the Southern Border of Israel: A Single Level I Trauma Center Series. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 1420–1426 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0447-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0447-6

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