Background: Deer hunting is a popular activity in much of the United States. In West Virginia, over 350,000 people each year actively hunt deer. Although injuries and deaths caused by shooting-related incidents have declined, hunting injuries caused by falls from deer stands have not. We present a retrospective study from January 1994 through December 1999 to determine the number of and trauma resulting from deer stand-related incidents in West Virginia.
Methods: Data have been compiled from individual hospital and state trauma registries, patient charts, and Department of Natural Resources logs.
Results: A total of 90 individuals have been identified with injuries related to deer stand falls over the 6-year period. There were seven deaths. Most patients had multiple injuries that included extremity fracture (47%), spine fracture (36%), head injury (20%), pelvic fracture (10%), rib/clavicle fracture (11%), solid organ injury (6%), pneumothorax (3%), and other minor injuries (21%). The majority of accidents were associated with home-built as opposed to commercial stands, and most hunters were not using safety straps. Blood alcohol was elevated in only 7% of injured victims.
Conclusion: Injuries from deer stand falls are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this state. This is the largest series of hunting-related deer stand injuries reported in the current literature. Other states have successfully implemented prevention programs that have resulted in a reduction of these types of injuries. Our data emphasize the need to establish and promote preventative education programs for hunters using tree stands.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005373-200210000-00014 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Josh Loeb discusses how Britain's wild deer population - standing at around three million - could be playing an active role in spreading bovine TB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPowassan virus lineage II or deer tick virus (DTV) is a rare but increasingly reported human infection in the United States transmitted by Ixodes scapularis ticks. The virus is thought to be maintained in environmental foci that are optimal for tick and vertebrate reservoirs, but details on DTV ecology are poorly understood. We investigated DTV tick infection rates and reservoir host abundance in a focus of consistent DTV activity in Maine, USA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFundamentals of wildlife dosimetry and lessons learned from a decade of measuring external dose rates in the field.
J Environ Radioact
September 2024
Republican Center for Hydrometeorology, Control of Radioactive Contamination and Environmental Monitoring (Belhydromet), Minsk, Belarus. Electronic address:
Methods for determining the radiation dose received by exposed biota require major improvements to reduce uncertainties and increase precision. We share our experiences in attempting to quantify external dose rates to free-ranging wildlife using GPS-coupled dosimetry methods. The manuscript is a primer on fundamental concepts in wildlife dosimetry in which the complexities of quantifying dose rates are highlighted, and lessons learned are presented based on research with wild boar and snakes at Fukushima, wolves at Chornobyl, and reindeer in Norway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF24-Month Outcomes of Indirect Decompression Using a Minimally Invasive Interspinous Fixation Device versus Standard Open Direct Decompression for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Prospective Comparison.
J Pain Res
June 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
Purpose: An early-stage, multi-centre, prospective, randomised control trial with five-year follow-up was approved by Health Research Authority to compare the efficacy of a minimally invasive, laterally implanted interspinous fixation device (IFD) to open direct surgical decompression in treating lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). Two-year results are presented.
Patients And Methods: Forty-eight participants were randomly assigned to IFD or decompression.
Ungulates mitigate the effects of drought and shrub encroachment on the fire hazard of Mediterranean oak woodlands.
Ecol Appl
June 2024
Forest Research Center, Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of droughts and the risk of severe wildfires, which can interact with shrub encroachment and browsing by wild ungulates. Wild ungulate populations are expanding due, among other factors, to favorable habitat changes resulting from land abandonment or land-use changes. Understanding how ungulate browsing interacts with drought to affect woody plant mortality, plant flammability, and fire hazard is especially relevant in the context of climate change and increasing frequency of wildfires.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!