And the hospital is seeing more adult bike crashes, too. “Kids are just riding around everywhere without helmets,’’ she said. But she also noted a 45% increase in bicycle-related injuries. Marietta-based Wellstar Health System is reporting an across-the-board increase in trauma cases, including a rise in suicide attempts and domestic violence injuries.Īt Piedmont Columbus, trauma cases are up 25% this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.Īll types of cases have increased, said Mary Bizilia, manager of the trauma program at Piedmont Columbus. It’s been challenging for people to cope.’’ “This pandemic has been hard on everybody. The overall trauma situation “should be looked at carefully,’’ Atallah told Georgia Health News last week. That superspeeder trend is also reported by local police. The Georgia State Patrol told the AJC in April that while it was writing far fewer traffic tickets than normal, tickets for speeding at 100 mph or more were up nearly two-thirds statewide from a year ago. Hany Atallah, chief of emergency medicine at Grady, speculates that some people are driving faster with less traffic to battle on normally jammed roads in metro Atlanta. It’s by no means a universal trend, either in the state or the nation. The Trauma Center Association of America said in May that overall trauma statistics appeared to be on the decline nationally, driven by a decrease in blunt trauma, while injuries from gunshots and stab wounds were not dropping.īut car crash injuries aren’t falling at Grady. Increases in ‘‘blunt force trauma,’’ such as car crashes and falls, and in ‘‘penetrating trauma’’ like gunshots and stabbings also have risen at large hospitals in Columbus, Marietta and Albany. Haupert said recently that almost every day since early June, Grady has treated at least one gunshot wound. Such injuries have reached the highest level that CEO John Haupert has seen since he arrived at the Atlanta safety-net hospital in 2011. Grady Memorial Hospital has seen a 25% rise in trauma cases. This story was originally published at Georgia Health News.įrom car accidents to gunshot wounds to bicycle crashes, some major Georgia hospitals are reporting an increase in trauma cases since the COVID-19 pandemic began.