An average of 10 people died each week in Abu Dhabi due to trauma-related injuries last year, primarily caused by road crashes and work-related accidents.
A senior doctor said the emirate's network of government hospitals - operated by Seha - received admissions due to such injuries every three hours during 2020.
Trauma injuries are among the leading causes of death across the emirate.
The stark statistics were revealed by Dr Ahmed Al Sayari, director of medical trauma at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in the capital, during a trauma awareness week at the hospital.
Even though we have seen a reduction in numbers, it hasn't reached the level that we had hoped for
“When we talk about trauma it includes a wide range of things such as road traffic accidents, pedestrian accidents, falls, construction site injuries and others,” said Dr Al Sayari.
“Many deaths happen before patients arrive at the hospital in spite of concentrated efforts by different government departments to reduce such deaths and even though we have seen a reduction in numbers, it hasn’t reached the level that we had hoped for.”
Two-thirds of UAE child deaths caused by road accidents
Dr Al Sayari and his team at SSMC are looking to reduce these worrying figures.
The hospital aims to position itself as a certified level 1 trauma centre, which would allow it to provide comprehensive care for every aspect of trauma injuries, from prevention to rehabilitation.
“Our target is 2025 but we need integration of all the different departments in the UAE,” Dr Al Sayari said.
“The trauma system is like the gears in a watch. There are small parts and large ones but if one of them is out no matter how large or small it is, the watch won’t work.
"This applies to the trauma system. All the entities have to work together and we need them all to be together to create a successful system.”
Road traffic accidents have reduced slightly in number due to stay-at-home measures and remote working and learning practices introduced during the pandemic.
But they remain a huge source of concern for doctors, especially in terms of younger victims.
According to information from Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, two thirds of all deaths from injury of children in the UAE result from road crashes.
This figure is almost three times the global average, the health centre research found.
Some parents still shunning child car seats
A large number of parents do not use car seats or do not install them correctly, said SSMC's child safety officer, Dr Anas Shorman.
“There is awareness, I can’t say there is none at all and there are many regulations in place. However, there are still many parents who don’t use car seats and there are many parents don’t know how to properly use a car seat,” said Dr Shorman.
Some parents he said would place a swaddled infant in a car seat.
“You have to remove any additional clothing like a wrap before you put an infant in a car seat,” he said.
Other factors include not strapping in the infant securely or adjusting the car seat.
“We have also seen mothers nursing while in the backseat of a moving car. If mothers want to nurse their newborn then they have to make sure that the car is parked first,” he said.
"These wrong practices all put the child in danger."
Air ambulance chief calls for better road awareness
Major Dr Ali Saif Al Dhuhouri, head of the aviation clinic at Abu Dhabi Police's aviation department, said the force is often called to help people in road accidents.
“We transport patients either from the scene itself, which we call primary mission, and our secondary mission is transporting patients between hospitals,” he added.
The force mainly covers Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region but will sometimes go as far as Oman for an air ambulance call-out.
“Per year we would have around 95 missions and a majority are transporting patients involved in car accidents. We need more awareness at multiple levels,” he said.
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs: 2018 Maserati Levante S
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Read more from Aya Iskandarani
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Lexus LX700h specs
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Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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