MEN’S risk-taking behaviour ensures they are far more likely than women to be involved in major trauma incidents, new figures show.
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The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne yesterday said 52 people from the Hume region had be flown to the hospital in the year to June 30.
The region came in third in the state, behind Gippsland and Geelong, for major trauma, making up almost 16 per cent of cases.
The Alfred’s figures showed that 73 per cent of patients that arrived by air involved men and doctors said many of those were involved in risky behaviour.
The most common injuries were from falls from a height of less than a metre and road crashes.
Other major causes were falls from a height, motorbike and cycling crashes.
“Our major trauma patients have multiple, serious injuries such as life-changing head injuries, which require months of recovery and rehabilitation,” the hospital’s emergency and trauma director Dr de Villiers Smit said.
“We’re not just talking about young men, either.
“This year we’ve seen men of all ages — from 15 to 98.
“While there’s a spike in the 15 to 24-year age group, we see men who have experienced major trauma across all ages.”
Dr Smit said more people were surviving injuries, due to continuing improvements in trauma care.
The Alfred takes most major trauma, with the Royal Melbourne Hospital the second option.
The hospital treated more than 60,300 patients in its emergency and trauma centre last year.