Trump's 'beautiful' wall led to a 5-fold increase in hospitalised migrants, at a cost of US$13m

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-04-30 01:00

International

President_Trump_Travels_to_Arizona_(50040937841) By The White House from Washington, DC, Public Domain

Donald Trump's "unclimbable" border wall between the US and Mexico, which replaced 406 miles of existing 2m - 5m barriers with a 9.1 m steel 'wall', and added an additional 80km of new wall, resulted in a more than five-fold increase in migrants hospitalised for falls in San Diego's Trauma Centre, costing the hospital system more than US$13m, according to US scientists. This surge in preventable border wall injuries not only increased unfunded costs to the hospital system, they say, but occurred at a time when hospitals were already slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the patients had significant brain and facial injuries or complex fractures of the extremities or spine, with many requiring intensive care and complex surgery.

Media release

From: JAMA

Association of Raising US-Mexico Wall With Migrant Deaths, Trauma Center Admissions, Injury Severity

About The Study: This retrospective trauma registry study of the University of California, San Diego level 1 trauma center, which receives patients with border wall injuries from San Diego and Imperial counties, examined deaths, injuries and hospital costs after construction of a 30-foot border wall.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Surgery

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of California, San Diego, USA

Funder: No information provided

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