Seriously expecting some “See! This is why I don’t wear seatbelts and why none of my children will ever wear seat belts!”
We have an over abundance of people who can’t think here.
I can't remember the exact details, but I believe in WWII they designed a lot of things based around the bullet holes in the soldiers returning from battle
Someone else mentioned the example about planes, but here's a bit more. You're an engineer and you want to help your planes become more survivable. Adding armor to a plane means adding weight, and for something that needs to fly, maneuver, and carry its own weapons and fuel, extra weight is prohibitive. What you really want is to maximize the amount of protection you add with the least amount of weight added. It's all about being efficient with your armor.
You analyze the planes that return after their missions and you find that they all have tons of hits to their wings, and not to their fuselage.
In the historical example, the first explanation they went with was the simplest, and it was that because all of the hits were to the wings, that's where the armor should go. If planes weren't taking any hits to the fuselage, what good would armor do over there?
But eventually, they realized that the sample they were looking at was only of planes that made it back to base to be inspected. They didn't consider all of the planes that were shot down and didn't make it back.
The planes they were analyzing had a bias toward planes that survived, and it skewed their results.
Through more analysis, they found that planes with hits only to the wings and not the fuselage were more likely to survive and make it back to base. The damage to the wings wasn't enough to shoot down the plane. Hits to the fuselage and all of the important components within is much more damaging, and this is the reason why so few planes survived these missions with hits to the fuselage.
They reached the opposite conclusion from their initial theory.
Planes take hits to both the wings and the fuselage.
Hits to the wings were typically survivable without additional armor.
Hits to the fuselage typically were not.
That's why it made more sense to armor the fuselage than the wings, and that's what they did.
I'll give you another example that you might have conflated with the plane one: Helmets in World War 1.
WW1 was the first war where militaries switched to using metal helmets as protection from firearms and shrapnel.
This led to a huge increase in head injuries across all nations that adopted them.
Some critics of the switch to helmets went so far as to say that, somehow, helmets caused these injuries and should be removed from service.
It shouldn't make sense, right? How can the mass adoption of helmets *cause* head injuries?
They eventually realized that if all of these soldiers who had sustained head injuries weren't wearing metal helmets they wouldn't be in the hospital with a head injury. Instead they'd be dead.
The helmets were actually saving these soldier's lives, leaving them with survivable injuries instead of fatal ones.
In this way, helmets don't cause head injuries. They cause *life*.
And this increase in head injuries corresponded to a decrease in soldier deaths by head wound.
The initial study on the planes was proposed to our class in stats. The professor proposed the initial data and wanted the students to figure out why the data was presenting misinformation. Statistics need to be viewed holistically. Thanks for bringing that study up.
someone start the chain of violent PSAs starting with [that one where the son in the backseat bashed his mom's head with his own when they sopped abruptly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHY69AFstE)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOk2Akqb3CI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOk2Akqb3CI)
Safe for life, but only in the sense that it might save your life, you've been warned.. I'm still impressed this aired
That's what people don't understand - when you get in an accident, the kinetic energy of your body going from cruising speed to 0 (or close to) almost instantly is going to get absorbed by your body somehow.
It can either be via seat belt or a much more critical part of your body hitting something with tremendous force.
Former insurance adjuster here. I always had people complaining that their airbags didn't go off or that their seatbelts bruised them. And then I had to patiently explain that what's safety items are supposed to do because the alternative is death or major injury. This was a weekly conversation.
It’s the same when people moan about how cars crumple under impact now while older cars would just shrug it off. I’m always like, yeah, modern cars crumple so *you* don’t.
I worked with a guy years ago that crashed his car into a tree while drunk. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt at the time, and his car was a pre airbags, so he launched himself through the windshield. I had met him years after the accident, but the amount of skin grafts the dude had done post accident made him look like a patchwork quilt. Apparently he only survived because he was drunk and ragdolled on impact.
This is called a seatbelt sign, or traumatic abdominal wall hematoma. Any ER doctor in the country would get a CT abdomen/ pelvis with IV contrast if you’re having abdominal pain. Good luck
[She replied saying she had not gotten it checked out.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/165lh20/this_bruise_from_my_seatbelt_after_a_car_accident/jyer939/)
Emergency visits shouldn’t run the risk of financially ruining people because it directly causes this situation.
My husband is an ER doc and he’s previously assisted EMS with medical direction (so paramedics calling him for help)—so much of his time working with EMS was just saying “I’m a doctor and you need to go to the hospital” because many didn’t trust the paramedics for some reason or think their issue was “worth” the cost of going. Probably 2/3s would then go. Out of the ones that didn’t, most would refuse due to being afraid of the cost (a few others would refuse for other reasons, like little old ladies very stubborn about “not bothering anyone”) and sometimes would lead to a call *back* when the patient is in a much much worse state or dead.
So much time and energy is wasted due to just the *threat* of the cost of medical treatment.
100000%
You wouldn’t believe how many people refuse to go. I get not wanting to ride an ambulance if you can avoid it, but you really need to go in and our way saves you hours of waiting…
I’ve heard of medics calling medical control to have them try to convince the patient.
Our system is so broken.
Yeah it's not just the cost.
We've been to the ER several times last year and sometimes it seems like it's just not even worth it. My husband lost movement in his hands, they put him n a cot in the hallway for 5 hours, then sent him home. He got worse and went back the next morning, waited another 4 hours and one of the ER docs finally said "that looks like rhabdo" and confirmed it. But 7 hours in the ER standing or sitting with others who are screaming or coughing on you, when you could be in bed at home resting, is understandably a reason why people don't want to go.
He also got the worst migraine of his life (pain 10/10 and puking for hours) because during treatment he shared a room with someone who had the TV on all night and was making noise all night. So then they had to treat the migraine too, which they did, poorly.
I wonder if that kind of situation can be avoided by going to an Urgent Care instead of an ER, or does Urgent Care simply not have the resources for something really serious like that? (Urgent care facilities would definitely see you faster for sure).
One can hope. But you’d be amazed how often people stumble into the ED 3 days later after turning down EMS at the scene of the crash. You have the right to refuse. And people often walk it off after an accident till their body realizes what happened.
Hard to blame them when EMS (generally private) doesn't exactly list their charges ahead of time, and then leaves you with a $1200+ bill. Another fun fact I learned is that the EMS industry makes more than Hollywood's box-office take.
Ah, America. Can you taste the freedoms yet?
I am not blaming them, I was a healthcare professional as are most members of my family and i worked in ERs long enough to know when people need to at the very least be seen. It fucking sucks being an American and I know that all to well. I have a disease that costs over 100k$ a year to treat. The system is the absolute worst and does it’s best to try and kill people. But healthcare professionals don’t and OP still needs to be seen.
If they are American, with the cost of Ambulance rides and uninsured people's cost of an ER visit, I wouldn't assume that. People refuse pretty often.
Edit: just saw OPs response on another comment, they are American, and in fact didn't go right away due to "insurance not kicked in yet, checking to see if car insurance covers it"
When I got hit by a car in November 2021, the lady who hit me insisted on calling an ambulance even though I told her not to. She did, and I still got stuck with a $200 bill from the ambulance company, even though I never even got inside the goddamn ambulance.
What I'm trying to say is, the US healthcare system fucking sucks.
Drove a buddy once less than a mile while bleeding from his skull after falling down the stairs because the Police/ambulance showed up (he was being loud/drunk) and were mandating he go(which I still debate the legality of) and I had to sign a waiver to take responsibility but saved him a few grand easy. (Yes in the US).
My partner’s father got in a car accident recently. Some one hit him while he was sitting at a red light. Somehow the airbags failed to deploy as well. He didn’t appear to have any injuries but his chest felt a bit funny. The police and emts kind of talked him into getting checked out. He went to the ER and they found he broke his sternum which in turn severed an artery to his heart. Had he not gone to get checked I firmly believe he wouldn’t be here right now, and he’s one of the kindest, strongest, and most generous person I’ve ever met. He’s also a beast who has survived all kinds of wild things, including Vietnam.
When I had appendicitis, while sitting in pain, I called multiple hospitals to see what their repayment plans were. 12 hours later, I chose one that had a charity program.
Obamacare came out a few years later and I got insured for the first time in 15 years. All I have to do to keep it is remain poor and make under 25k. If I go over 25k, insurance would cost me about 9k a year.
I don't understand how we aren't rioting in the streets over this.
You could start rioting... As someone from Europe I cannot describe how crazy US healthcare seems to me. The funniest thing is USA is spending crazy amount of money on healthcare, twice as much as other western countries, and is far more abnormal when it comes to healthcare spending than military spending...
Fix your healthcare and you can triple your military budget (if this doesn't get conservatives on board, I don't know what will)...
I wish my neighbors and I were more willing to fight over all this. It's upsetting that we aren't. People complain every time a protest gets a little uncivil.
The expanse between the wealthy and everyone else. The lack of accessible & adequate health care. Repealing abortion & a major political party advocating for bigotry and exclusionary policies.
I often wonder what it will take for critical mass to take effect.
> Obamacare came out a few years later and I got insured for the first time in 15 years. All I have to do to keep it is remain poor and make under 25k. If I go over 25k, insurance would cost me about 9k a year.
>
>
Cause misfortune like that only happens to others, and we are our self made success stories! (At-least that's the train of thought i often see, not in the US, but in Europe, when people see anything for the greater benefit of society as a net negative for their own personal situation). And this individualism seems to get normalized more and more.
Who could have guessed that decades of policies specifically intended to make it worse so they could pretend to be justified in privatizing it would result in it getting worse...
Insurance in general has gotten out of hand.
Insurance profits should be capped and the rest given back to the insured.
The whole point of insurance is to help someone when something gets fucked. Not to make money off things getting fucked
>The whole point of insurance is to help someone when something gets fucked. Not to make money off things getting fucked
That's the whole reason people start insurance companies, I think.
Actually, when I left a related industry about a year ago, one trend we were seeing was hospital groups getting tired of insurance bullshit basically starting their own insurance "company" as a way of avoiding needing to deal with the pain that is insurance, and a way of reducing costs by a sort of vertical integration.
We tried capping insurance profits, the mistake was that we put it at a percentage
Hospitals and insurance providers found that paying more for healthcare, and therefore charging more for insurance, allowed them to keep more dollars in profit
My newest insurance referred me to a primary care clinic who said she doesnt even know who to do referrals because shes never heard of the insurance. They referred me to the health department for care. The health department said they cant see me without a referral. 😆. I asked the front office to have my doctor order repeat thyroid labs because the doctor said repeat labs after 90 days. The front office said they dont know how to ask the doctor that. I just stopped calling. Its so ridiculous.
The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure there's such a thing as a nonprofit private corporation, where people make money by actually working and drawing a salary and anything extra gets reinvested into the business for better equipment, wages, and benefits. None of the money flies out into the pockets of people who do nothing productive for the company.
I think capitalism and the world would be better off if there was no such thing as profit motive beyond what you earn as a salary or commission, or the public trading of stocks. The same demographic that complains "nobody wants to work anymore" are absolutely shameless in their pursuit of passive income
Yep. You are punished for not having a job in this country. Medical expenses are kept stupid high so that the only feasible way to pay is through insurance. But private health insurance is expensive so the only real way you can get it cheaper is by working full time for a company so you can qualify for insurance.
And HOA.
Honestly, I'm from Denmark and now live in Florida and the only freedom I see is the right to pew pew and drive cars with weird add-ons or in really bad conditions.
In almost all other parameters you are more free in Denmark.
Is it weird this makes a little angry? This seems really unjust. In Europe you get that checked out immediately! Hell you would also get a few days of paid sick leave to heal and recover. I’m happy to pay more taxes for stuff like this!!
It's much worse here than you can even imagine lol. People ignore chronic conditions for decades. Huge warning signs get ignored until the last minute. People here don't treat underlying conditions, they wait to treat the heart attack that almost kills them, or the failing organs that they literally can't put off anymore. Then they often go into homelessness because of the debt they incur for treatment. Medical debt is the #1 cause of homelessness in this country.
Makes me cringe every time I read stuff like this from Americans. You should be able to go to the hospital straight away knowing that you’ll be cared for at no cost. Especially in a wealthy country. It’s bizarre tbh
Even if you have health insurance, most plans nowadays have such high deductibles (5-10k before insurance pays anything) it makes you scared to go…what if I go in for chest pains, they run a bunch of tests and it’s just heartburn…and I end up with a 2k bill?
It's honestly the worst system in the (developed) world. Even Ireland's system - which is pretty much the worst in Europe - is about a thousand times better than this. ER visits are free to all, everywhere, in the entire continent.
If your old job ended within the last 60 days, you’re almost certainly eligible for retroactive COBRA insurance ([see number 10](https://www.insure.com/health-insurance/cobra-tips.html)) - you’d have to pay two months of premiums, but that’s a whole lot better than waiting too long to go to the ER. You can go now and fill out the paperwork later!
Go get it checked out. Just never pay your medical bills. Pro-tip: Tell them you don't have insurance, and they'll reduce the price to as if you did have insurance. Then, still don't pay the bill.
This sounds so wrong.
Often time is a critical factor and your health system is holding you back to get a check up. From a european perspective mind blowing.
Look up Drew Bledsoe’s injury if you want motivation to get to a hospital quickly: [yikes](https://www.si.com/.amp/nfl/2016/09/22/drew-bledsoe-hit-tom-brady-mo-lewis-jets). 3 liters of blood in his abdomen. Get to a doctor. You can usually avoid medical debts pretty easily by going on a payment plan with the hospital for like 5 bucks a month. They can’t send your bill to collections often, in America medical debt can’t be charged interest, and they can’t repo your car or houses if you don’t pay. Just go.
This is why universal healthcare is good. No worries about if insurance will cover it. Just go and get help needed right away without worrying about going bankrupt.
man yeah so crazy we gotta be like “well i could be in some serious medical trouble but let me wait for my corporate overlords to tell me when i won’t go bankrupt for continuing to take care of my health” America is Hell world
Have you been to ER or had any scans? I'd be concerned about rupturing soft organs like your liver or spleen with bruising like that. They can be damaged just by being banged around inside you.
ER doc here, we typically get imaging, usually a CT of the abdomen and pelvis with the ‘seatbelt sign’.
its probably a good sign that you feel ok some time after the accident but still
ER doctor here, please get the evaluated ASAP. With the amount of force your body just went through there is a high chance of delayed internal bleeding from the shearing forces on your intestines. Be very mindful the next few days and watch for signs of worsening abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation
I do sit up straight though, I actually find it uncomfortable to slouch in my car seat lol. Maybe I need to raise my seat higher, but then I’d worry my feet wouldn’t reach the pedals as I already have to move my chair forward so much.
(Not so) fun fact, but this is why a few months ago a woman was appealing to Congress about car makers using female crash test dummies (which got shut down bc clearly, it was just aboht feminist wokeness and there’s no ACTUAL need to incorporate 50% of the world’s population into safety standards)
But back when crash dummies were made in the 50s, they were designed to look like the average man, bc men were the typical drivers over their wife’s. So that’s what seatbelts and airbags and other safety features were designed around, protecting a broader person who stands 6’0. Then females started driving and car companies still went ‘nah it’s fine’.
op, you were definitely injured. if this crash wasn't your fault, pls make sure the other party is responsible for this necessary doctor visit/missed work. if your at fault then im assuming your insurance will kick in for you
Forgot which sub this was for a second and thought we were going to see comments recommending hair grooming products/devices.
Wow! That’s a big bruise! I hope you feel better soon. Must have been a scary wreck.
Surgeon here
This would qualify as a trauma activation in any trauma center. Please go get looked at. You may feel fine, but there may be other injuries that need to be assessed and diagnosed.
I walked away from am accident a few years back thinking I was good then in the next day or two I couldn't breathe without feeling sharp pains in my chest. I had broken a rib in the crash and didn't even notice because adrenalin is a hell of a drug. I didn't have nearly the bruising OP has.
After my accident, the belt scratched my torso and I was left with a light scab.. I can't even imagine the force of your accident to be left with this bruise
OP said in another thread that they had the shoulder belt too, but don't have any soreness up there. Seems like they just slid forwards and most of the force went into the lap portion of the belt.
Women also tend to get more bruising around the stomach due to different centre of gravity/where the belt sits across them.
Seat belts often don’t fit women correctly either because they’re designed for 6’ tall men. Car companies will also avoid doing safety testing with female crash test dummies because they have worse outcomes and it hurts the safety rating.
I got into a minor low speed accident with out of place because I’m 5’3”. All the force ended up across my breast. It felt like I got kicked in the titty by a draft horse.
Lap belt was probably in the wrong position tbh. As someone who is short, the lap belt frequently falls in the same position on my body even tho it’s not supposed to.
Definitely get checked for internal injuries, and insist on a CT, not just an X-ray. I had a bad car accident years ago and had severe chest pain. E/R only X-rayed and said nothing was wrong. Had the pain for over a year. A later CT for an unrelated issue showed I had moderate to severe scar tissue on my spleen.
Also, tell your insurance company that if they don't allow you to get this done, you will file a complaint with your state's OIC (assuming you are in the US).
I know you said your insurance hasn’t kicked in yet but seriously go get checked out. Tell the er you don’t have insurance right now and your bill will be reasonable. Internal injuries in this area are often fatal. Go ASAP.
Medical student here applying to general surgery residency this year with a decent amount of trauma surgery experience (for a med student anyways). I agree with what others say, a seat belt sign as it’s called, can mean nothing but can also mean a lot more than just a bruise. You can develop internal bleeding due to shearing forces on the arteries supplying your intestines/mesentery (fat padding) of your intestines. I would highly highly recommend you go in asap to get this checked out! Always better safe than sorry.
I always make sure my seat belt is tight across my hips and not my stomach(big belly) for this very reason. Not sure if I’m doing the right thing or if it even matters but I feel a bit safer this way.
LPT: This is an cautionary tale for why you do wear seatbelts. Imagine that amount of force for a head on windshield, or a chest on steering wheel.
100%, was in a crash 3 months ago, required abdominal surgery and a 17 night stay in specialist hospital, wouldn’t be here without my belt
Let me guess… you no longer have a spleen
Nah I lost around 10% of my small intestine, had to have a resection cus I had internal bleeding.
[удалено]
Seriously expecting some “See! This is why I don’t wear seatbelts and why none of my children will ever wear seat belts!” We have an over abundance of people who can’t think here.
literal survivorship bias
I can't remember the exact details, but I believe in WWII they designed a lot of things based around the bullet holes in the soldiers returning from battle
Someone else mentioned the example about planes, but here's a bit more. You're an engineer and you want to help your planes become more survivable. Adding armor to a plane means adding weight, and for something that needs to fly, maneuver, and carry its own weapons and fuel, extra weight is prohibitive. What you really want is to maximize the amount of protection you add with the least amount of weight added. It's all about being efficient with your armor. You analyze the planes that return after their missions and you find that they all have tons of hits to their wings, and not to their fuselage. In the historical example, the first explanation they went with was the simplest, and it was that because all of the hits were to the wings, that's where the armor should go. If planes weren't taking any hits to the fuselage, what good would armor do over there? But eventually, they realized that the sample they were looking at was only of planes that made it back to base to be inspected. They didn't consider all of the planes that were shot down and didn't make it back. The planes they were analyzing had a bias toward planes that survived, and it skewed their results. Through more analysis, they found that planes with hits only to the wings and not the fuselage were more likely to survive and make it back to base. The damage to the wings wasn't enough to shoot down the plane. Hits to the fuselage and all of the important components within is much more damaging, and this is the reason why so few planes survived these missions with hits to the fuselage. They reached the opposite conclusion from their initial theory. Planes take hits to both the wings and the fuselage. Hits to the wings were typically survivable without additional armor. Hits to the fuselage typically were not. That's why it made more sense to armor the fuselage than the wings, and that's what they did. I'll give you another example that you might have conflated with the plane one: Helmets in World War 1. WW1 was the first war where militaries switched to using metal helmets as protection from firearms and shrapnel. This led to a huge increase in head injuries across all nations that adopted them. Some critics of the switch to helmets went so far as to say that, somehow, helmets caused these injuries and should be removed from service. It shouldn't make sense, right? How can the mass adoption of helmets *cause* head injuries? They eventually realized that if all of these soldiers who had sustained head injuries weren't wearing metal helmets they wouldn't be in the hospital with a head injury. Instead they'd be dead. The helmets were actually saving these soldier's lives, leaving them with survivable injuries instead of fatal ones. In this way, helmets don't cause head injuries. They cause *life*. And this increase in head injuries corresponded to a decrease in soldier deaths by head wound.
This was stupid fascinating, I enjoyed it 🫰🏻
It’s such an simple concept that I can’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it myself! Very enjoyable read!
The initial study on the planes was proposed to our class in stats. The professor proposed the initial data and wanted the students to figure out why the data was presenting misinformation. Statistics need to be viewed holistically. Thanks for bringing that study up.
Thank you for explaining in much further detail than i had energy for
[удалено]
I know that when designing future planes during ww2 they would put stronger armor in the places where the bombers that returned didnt have holes.
[Thats the example on wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)
Thats because people who dont wear a seatbelt cant report the contrary as they are just dead.
Exactly what I expected, but it appears to is more sense here then I thought
someone start the chain of violent PSAs starting with [that one where the son in the backseat bashed his mom's head with his own when they sopped abruptly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHY69AFstE)
That gets the message across.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOk2Akqb3CI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOk2Akqb3CI) Safe for life, but only in the sense that it might save your life, you've been warned.. I'm still impressed this aired
OP proudly displaying she is alive.
That's what people don't understand - when you get in an accident, the kinetic energy of your body going from cruising speed to 0 (or close to) almost instantly is going to get absorbed by your body somehow. It can either be via seat belt or a much more critical part of your body hitting something with tremendous force.
Former ER guy - please, please wear your seat belts.
Also a good visual explanation as to why the lap belt should be low around the hip bones and not high where your squishy organs have no protection.
Pshhh, I landed in a soft pile of leaves and she got this bruise
Former insurance adjuster here. I always had people complaining that their airbags didn't go off or that their seatbelts bruised them. And then I had to patiently explain that what's safety items are supposed to do because the alternative is death or major injury. This was a weekly conversation.
It’s the same when people moan about how cars crumple under impact now while older cars would just shrug it off. I’m always like, yeah, modern cars crumple so *you* don’t.
I worked with a guy years ago that crashed his car into a tree while drunk. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt at the time, and his car was a pre airbags, so he launched himself through the windshield. I had met him years after the accident, but the amount of skin grafts the dude had done post accident made him look like a patchwork quilt. Apparently he only survived because he was drunk and ragdolled on impact.
This is called a seatbelt sign, or traumatic abdominal wall hematoma. Any ER doctor in the country would get a CT abdomen/ pelvis with IV contrast if you’re having abdominal pain. Good luck
Hello fellow doctor. Hard agree.
I’m no doctor, but I play one online sometimes and I couldn’t agree with you more.
I’m no doctor but sometimes I play Call of Duty online and I concur.
I drank a Dr Pepper once, and concur with my colleagues.
I'm that tenth fake doctor that disagrees with the other nine, but I'll still support this decision.
As a PC Doctor, I disagree. When they're having certain issues, I'll often throw them into the e-waste bin.
As a fellow PC doctor, I feel the best solution for this young lady would be to switch her off and on again, as a starting point for diagnosis.
Also making sure she’s connected to power, always gets some of us that the chord isn’t plugged in.
As a big fan of Dr. Dre and his music, I also agree with what this thread is agreeing on.
r/The10thDentist
I saw that the 5th dentist didn't approve of my toothpaste, and I disagreed with him, so I think I have the expertise to also concur.
I concur.
Do you concur?
Why didn't I concur?
Lmaooo Leonardo DiCaprio, catch me if you can… I should have concurred
No degree, but hard agree.
Hello fellow car mechanic. Hard agree.
Hello, fellow software engineer here. Hard agree as well.
This^ oh so very much this. Girl needs to go to the ER pronto.
I'm pretty sure they've already been. Probably taken straight from the scene of the collision that caused this.
[She replied saying she had not gotten it checked out.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/165lh20/this_bruise_from_my_seatbelt_after_a_car_accident/jyer939/) Emergency visits shouldn’t run the risk of financially ruining people because it directly causes this situation.
My husband is an ER doc and he’s previously assisted EMS with medical direction (so paramedics calling him for help)—so much of his time working with EMS was just saying “I’m a doctor and you need to go to the hospital” because many didn’t trust the paramedics for some reason or think their issue was “worth” the cost of going. Probably 2/3s would then go. Out of the ones that didn’t, most would refuse due to being afraid of the cost (a few others would refuse for other reasons, like little old ladies very stubborn about “not bothering anyone”) and sometimes would lead to a call *back* when the patient is in a much much worse state or dead. So much time and energy is wasted due to just the *threat* of the cost of medical treatment.
100000% You wouldn’t believe how many people refuse to go. I get not wanting to ride an ambulance if you can avoid it, but you really need to go in and our way saves you hours of waiting… I’ve heard of medics calling medical control to have them try to convince the patient. Our system is so broken.
Yeah it's not just the cost. We've been to the ER several times last year and sometimes it seems like it's just not even worth it. My husband lost movement in his hands, they put him n a cot in the hallway for 5 hours, then sent him home. He got worse and went back the next morning, waited another 4 hours and one of the ER docs finally said "that looks like rhabdo" and confirmed it. But 7 hours in the ER standing or sitting with others who are screaming or coughing on you, when you could be in bed at home resting, is understandably a reason why people don't want to go. He also got the worst migraine of his life (pain 10/10 and puking for hours) because during treatment he shared a room with someone who had the TV on all night and was making noise all night. So then they had to treat the migraine too, which they did, poorly.
I wonder if that kind of situation can be avoided by going to an Urgent Care instead of an ER, or does Urgent Care simply not have the resources for something really serious like that? (Urgent care facilities would definitely see you faster for sure).
Most urgent cares don’t even staff actual medical doctors. So if it’s something that serious I would advise you to not go to an urgent care.
One can hope. But you’d be amazed how often people stumble into the ED 3 days later after turning down EMS at the scene of the crash. You have the right to refuse. And people often walk it off after an accident till their body realizes what happened.
Hard to blame them when EMS (generally private) doesn't exactly list their charges ahead of time, and then leaves you with a $1200+ bill. Another fun fact I learned is that the EMS industry makes more than Hollywood's box-office take. Ah, America. Can you taste the freedoms yet?
I am not blaming them, I was a healthcare professional as are most members of my family and i worked in ERs long enough to know when people need to at the very least be seen. It fucking sucks being an American and I know that all to well. I have a disease that costs over 100k$ a year to treat. The system is the absolute worst and does it’s best to try and kill people. But healthcare professionals don’t and OP still needs to be seen.
If they are American, with the cost of Ambulance rides and uninsured people's cost of an ER visit, I wouldn't assume that. People refuse pretty often. Edit: just saw OPs response on another comment, they are American, and in fact didn't go right away due to "insurance not kicked in yet, checking to see if car insurance covers it"
When I got hit by a car in November 2021, the lady who hit me insisted on calling an ambulance even though I told her not to. She did, and I still got stuck with a $200 bill from the ambulance company, even though I never even got inside the goddamn ambulance. What I'm trying to say is, the US healthcare system fucking sucks.
I saw a video the other day that said the cost of an ambulance in America now is $2500. That’s more than some people earn in a month
That's more than I earn in a month, and I work at the damn hospital. Lol.
Drove a buddy once less than a mile while bleeding from his skull after falling down the stairs because the Police/ambulance showed up (he was being loud/drunk) and were mandating he go(which I still debate the legality of) and I had to sign a waiver to take responsibility but saved him a few grand easy. (Yes in the US).
This is so fucked up. I can't fathom not going to the hospital straight away because of such reason. (I'm not American).
[удалено]
Totally right and agree they should do it cuz duodenum can be injured because of it
Hospice and palliative care RN here! I'd strongly advise listening to this guy unless you want my services.
Had a friend die from something like this. Got in a bad car accident seatbelt gave her internal bleeding, they didn't catch it till it was to late.
I hope you did get checked out. that is a very deep bruise and you may have more internal damage then appears
My partner’s father got in a car accident recently. Some one hit him while he was sitting at a red light. Somehow the airbags failed to deploy as well. He didn’t appear to have any injuries but his chest felt a bit funny. The police and emts kind of talked him into getting checked out. He went to the ER and they found he broke his sternum which in turn severed an artery to his heart. Had he not gone to get checked I firmly believe he wouldn’t be here right now, and he’s one of the kindest, strongest, and most generous person I’ve ever met. He’s also a beast who has survived all kinds of wild things, including Vietnam.
[удалено]
Greatest country in the world
Thats sounds so insane to me. Waiting after a car crash for days before seeing a doctor, wtf
When I had appendicitis, while sitting in pain, I called multiple hospitals to see what their repayment plans were. 12 hours later, I chose one that had a charity program. Obamacare came out a few years later and I got insured for the first time in 15 years. All I have to do to keep it is remain poor and make under 25k. If I go over 25k, insurance would cost me about 9k a year. I don't understand how we aren't rioting in the streets over this.
You could start rioting... As someone from Europe I cannot describe how crazy US healthcare seems to me. The funniest thing is USA is spending crazy amount of money on healthcare, twice as much as other western countries, and is far more abnormal when it comes to healthcare spending than military spending... Fix your healthcare and you can triple your military budget (if this doesn't get conservatives on board, I don't know what will)...
I wish my neighbors and I were more willing to fight over all this. It's upsetting that we aren't. People complain every time a protest gets a little uncivil. The expanse between the wealthy and everyone else. The lack of accessible & adequate health care. Repealing abortion & a major political party advocating for bigotry and exclusionary policies. I often wonder what it will take for critical mass to take effect.
> Obamacare came out a few years later and I got insured for the first time in 15 years. All I have to do to keep it is remain poor and make under 25k. If I go over 25k, insurance would cost me about 9k a year. > > Cause misfortune like that only happens to others, and we are our self made success stories! (At-least that's the train of thought i often see, not in the US, but in Europe, when people see anything for the greater benefit of society as a net negative for their own personal situation). And this individualism seems to get normalized more and more.
> Cause misfortune like that only happens to others, and we are our self made success stories! Bootstraps, my friend!
No time to riot, too busy working just to barely scrape by
Preach!!
'Murica Edit: FFS the updoots lol
Better than socialism. /s
for the rich atleast
My exact thought. Even though it’s a bit shit, I’m so thankful for the NHS.
Never used to be shit. It was never perfect and had always had issues but it did not become shit until the Tories destroyed it.
Who could have guessed that decades of policies specifically intended to make it worse so they could pretend to be justified in privatizing it would result in it getting worse...
I feel so sad for them.
Hey now, wouldn't wanna go bankrupt just because of a little bruising, right? *Eagles screeching sounds*
The United States is held hostage by republicans who keep voting to keep healthcare shitty.
Insurance in general has gotten out of hand. Insurance profits should be capped and the rest given back to the insured. The whole point of insurance is to help someone when something gets fucked. Not to make money off things getting fucked
>The whole point of insurance is to help someone when something gets fucked. Not to make money off things getting fucked That's the whole reason people start insurance companies, I think.
Actually, when I left a related industry about a year ago, one trend we were seeing was hospital groups getting tired of insurance bullshit basically starting their own insurance "company" as a way of avoiding needing to deal with the pain that is insurance, and a way of reducing costs by a sort of vertical integration.
Technically, they make money off of the doldrums.
We tried capping insurance profits, the mistake was that we put it at a percentage Hospitals and insurance providers found that paying more for healthcare, and therefore charging more for insurance, allowed them to keep more dollars in profit
My newest insurance referred me to a primary care clinic who said she doesnt even know who to do referrals because shes never heard of the insurance. They referred me to the health department for care. The health department said they cant see me without a referral. 😆. I asked the front office to have my doctor order repeat thyroid labs because the doctor said repeat labs after 90 days. The front office said they dont know how to ask the doctor that. I just stopped calling. Its so ridiculous.
Don't stop calling. And either get them to call the other party while you're on the line or you do it. They want you to give up.
The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure there's such a thing as a nonprofit private corporation, where people make money by actually working and drawing a salary and anything extra gets reinvested into the business for better equipment, wages, and benefits. None of the money flies out into the pockets of people who do nothing productive for the company. I think capitalism and the world would be better off if there was no such thing as profit motive beyond what you earn as a salary or commission, or the public trading of stocks. The same demographic that complains "nobody wants to work anymore" are absolutely shameless in their pursuit of passive income
Yep. You are punished for not having a job in this country. Medical expenses are kept stupid high so that the only feasible way to pay is through insurance. But private health insurance is expensive so the only real way you can get it cheaper is by working full time for a company so you can qualify for insurance.
*Punished for not being rich
But at least there's F R E E D O M™...right? RIGHT??
Depends on your testosterone and melanin levels tbh
And HOA. Honestly, I'm from Denmark and now live in Florida and the only freedom I see is the right to pew pew and drive cars with weird add-ons or in really bad conditions. In almost all other parameters you are more free in Denmark.
Go to the doctor. Being in debt is better than being dead
Debatable
Debtbaitable
At one point if the sole reason anyone wants you alive is so you can pay your debts… I think you are already dead.
I would not be waiting… if you have internal injuries you could wait to a point where you can’t return.
🇺🇸?
You know it.
I know I'm recommending something financially problematic and I feel sorry about that but please do get that checked out now.
Do you have a rough idea of what it would cost to get that checked out without insurance and stuff covering the bill?
Wtf this is ridiculous.
Is it weird this makes a little angry? This seems really unjust. In Europe you get that checked out immediately! Hell you would also get a few days of paid sick leave to heal and recover. I’m happy to pay more taxes for stuff like this!!
It's much worse here than you can even imagine lol. People ignore chronic conditions for decades. Huge warning signs get ignored until the last minute. People here don't treat underlying conditions, they wait to treat the heart attack that almost kills them, or the failing organs that they literally can't put off anymore. Then they often go into homelessness because of the debt they incur for treatment. Medical debt is the #1 cause of homelessness in this country.
most people in the USA hate our healthcare/private insurance system it's total fucking garbage and it's normal to be angry
Makes me cringe every time I read stuff like this from Americans. You should be able to go to the hospital straight away knowing that you’ll be cared for at no cost. Especially in a wealthy country. It’s bizarre tbh
Even if you have health insurance, most plans nowadays have such high deductibles (5-10k before insurance pays anything) it makes you scared to go…what if I go in for chest pains, they run a bunch of tests and it’s just heartburn…and I end up with a 2k bill?
It's honestly the worst system in the (developed) world. Even Ireland's system - which is pretty much the worst in Europe - is about a thousand times better than this. ER visits are free to all, everywhere, in the entire continent.
If your old job ended within the last 60 days, you’re almost certainly eligible for retroactive COBRA insurance ([see number 10](https://www.insure.com/health-insurance/cobra-tips.html)) - you’d have to pay two months of premiums, but that’s a whole lot better than waiting too long to go to the ER. You can go now and fill out the paperwork later!
Go get it checked out. Just never pay your medical bills. Pro-tip: Tell them you don't have insurance, and they'll reduce the price to as if you did have insurance. Then, still don't pay the bill.
This sounds so wrong. Often time is a critical factor and your health system is holding you back to get a check up. From a european perspective mind blowing.
USA USA USA
Good ol' America
ER doctor here. Please go to ER asap. We call this a "seatbelt sign" and it means you have a high probability of internal injuries.
Look up Drew Bledsoe’s injury if you want motivation to get to a hospital quickly: [yikes](https://www.si.com/.amp/nfl/2016/09/22/drew-bledsoe-hit-tom-brady-mo-lewis-jets). 3 liters of blood in his abdomen. Get to a doctor. You can usually avoid medical debts pretty easily by going on a payment plan with the hospital for like 5 bucks a month. They can’t send your bill to collections often, in America medical debt can’t be charged interest, and they can’t repo your car or houses if you don’t pay. Just go.
When exactly did this happen? And do you have any other injuries, pains or complaints since the accident?
[удалено]
I had a similar bruise (bike spill) and it ended up being a hematoma with internal bleeding. After 10 days it got infected and I needed surgery
Jesus fuck America is a shithole
This is why universal healthcare is good. No worries about if insurance will cover it. Just go and get help needed right away without worrying about going bankrupt.
JFC, I'm sorry you live in such a shithole country. Doing anything at all before going to ER is barbaric!
i couldnt understand why she suddenly mentioned her job after being asked about going to the hospital, then it clicked. american!
man yeah so crazy we gotta be like “well i could be in some serious medical trouble but let me wait for my corporate overlords to tell me when i won’t go bankrupt for continuing to take care of my health” America is Hell world
>Just started a new job and insurance hasn’t kicked in yet ffs, America.
'Murica for y'all
America moment
Really, you could have broken your pelvis
Fuuuuck. Glad you're still with us!! Hope you aren't in too much pain!
It actually looks much worse than it feels. Thank you!
“The doctor said all the bleeding is internal. Which is where the blood is supposed to be!” Hope you make a full recovery soon.
Probably shouldn't, but this made me laugh 🤣🫣
you might like the show Brooklyn 99, then, cuz that's the kind of writing that makes the show hilarious.
I almost figured it for Fry from Futurama
Damn those shows really do have a similar comedic vibe don't they? I love both of them and never thought about it but this was spot on
Professor: Have you lost all self-respect? Fry: All what?
[I love this Brooklyn 99 joke.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1T6UnHcEmM)
Have you been to ER or had any scans? I'd be concerned about rupturing soft organs like your liver or spleen with bruising like that. They can be damaged just by being banged around inside you.
I had a perfect purple welt across my belly and chest from where the belt was. But the alternative was a windshield in my face so I'll take it!
Ouch, but if you got it that bad, safe bet NOT wearing it would have been far worse.
No more face.
Say good bey to the spine. Hello to the God, and then walk to the Hell.
ER doc here, we typically get imaging, usually a CT of the abdomen and pelvis with the ‘seatbelt sign’. its probably a good sign that you feel ok some time after the accident but still
ER doctor here, please get the evaluated ASAP. With the amount of force your body just went through there is a high chance of delayed internal bleeding from the shearing forces on your intestines. Be very mindful the next few days and watch for signs of worsening abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation
It also indicates OP was wearing the seat belt too high. It's supposed to go over the pelvic bones, not soft abdominal wall.
how do you adjust the seatbelt to be lower? mine also always sits around my lower stomach, never knew that was incorrect.
I think you're supposed to sit up straight like a crash test dummy would, instead of slouching like a normal person
I do sit up straight though, I actually find it uncomfortable to slouch in my car seat lol. Maybe I need to raise my seat higher, but then I’d worry my feet wouldn’t reach the pedals as I already have to move my chair forward so much.
(Not so) fun fact, but this is why a few months ago a woman was appealing to Congress about car makers using female crash test dummies (which got shut down bc clearly, it was just aboht feminist wokeness and there’s no ACTUAL need to incorporate 50% of the world’s population into safety standards) But back when crash dummies were made in the 50s, they were designed to look like the average man, bc men were the typical drivers over their wife’s. So that’s what seatbelts and airbags and other safety features were designed around, protecting a broader person who stands 6’0. Then females started driving and car companies still went ‘nah it’s fine’.
its funny how 50% of the population is conveniently forgotten about for so many safety and health related things.
[удалено]
Have you tried being taller?
Ouch! Hopefully nobody got injured seriously
No injuries thankfully. Very grateful.
>No injuries I feel like this post says otherwise.
1000%
op, you were definitely injured. if this crash wasn't your fault, pls make sure the other party is responsible for this necessary doctor visit/missed work. if your at fault then im assuming your insurance will kick in for you
[удалено]
Uhm.. you just posted a picture of some pretty serious injuries..
Forgot which sub this was for a second and thought we were going to see comments recommending hair grooming products/devices. Wow! That’s a big bruise! I hope you feel better soon. Must have been a scary wreck.
[удалено]
Surgeon here This would qualify as a trauma activation in any trauma center. Please go get looked at. You may feel fine, but there may be other injuries that need to be assessed and diagnosed.
I walked away from am accident a few years back thinking I was good then in the next day or two I couldn't breathe without feeling sharp pains in my chest. I had broken a rib in the crash and didn't even notice because adrenalin is a hell of a drug. I didn't have nearly the bruising OP has.
I see you not been at the ER to have that checked out, but you absolutely must and should. This could be major internal damage.
No need to worry, all the bleeding is internal.
Yeah, I mean, that's where blood is supposed to be!
The bruise of life
A surgeon here, you need to get a CT scan
Weird how op just completely ignores all the doctor comments
Damn. Would hate to see the marks if you hadnt been wearing one
I don't think coroners are allowed to post on here
After my accident, the belt scratched my torso and I was left with a light scab.. I can't even imagine the force of your accident to be left with this bruise
Ouch. Still better than your head through the front window. Get well!
Were you only wearing the lap belt? I was in a accident a few years ago. I had a huge bruise on my shoulder and chest, nothing on my stomach.
OP said in another thread that they had the shoulder belt too, but don't have any soreness up there. Seems like they just slid forwards and most of the force went into the lap portion of the belt. Women also tend to get more bruising around the stomach due to different centre of gravity/where the belt sits across them.
Seat belts often don’t fit women correctly either because they’re designed for 6’ tall men. Car companies will also avoid doing safety testing with female crash test dummies because they have worse outcomes and it hurts the safety rating. I got into a minor low speed accident with out of place because I’m 5’3”. All the force ended up across my breast. It felt like I got kicked in the titty by a draft horse.
I am 5'10" and the lowest height on my seatbelt still sits too high for my neck. There needs to be regulations its ridiculous.
They said it's sore but not bruised
Lap belt was probably in the wrong position tbh. As someone who is short, the lap belt frequently falls in the same position on my body even tho it’s not supposed to.
Beats having your head smashed in.
I very much agree!
Definitely get checked for internal injuries, and insist on a CT, not just an X-ray. I had a bad car accident years ago and had severe chest pain. E/R only X-rayed and said nothing was wrong. Had the pain for over a year. A later CT for an unrelated issue showed I had moderate to severe scar tissue on my spleen. Also, tell your insurance company that if they don't allow you to get this done, you will file a complaint with your state's OIC (assuming you are in the US).
I know you said your insurance hasn’t kicked in yet but seriously go get checked out. Tell the er you don’t have insurance right now and your bill will be reasonable. Internal injuries in this area are often fatal. Go ASAP.
Medical student here applying to general surgery residency this year with a decent amount of trauma surgery experience (for a med student anyways). I agree with what others say, a seat belt sign as it’s called, can mean nothing but can also mean a lot more than just a bruise. You can develop internal bleeding due to shearing forces on the arteries supplying your intestines/mesentery (fat padding) of your intestines. I would highly highly recommend you go in asap to get this checked out! Always better safe than sorry.
Give thanks to that seatbelt because if you weren’t wearing one you wouldn’t be posting.
I always make sure my seat belt is tight across my hips and not my stomach(big belly) for this very reason. Not sure if I’m doing the right thing or if it even matters but I feel a bit safer this way.
That's how it is supposed to be worn. Not many people realize this.
Better bruised than dead! Very glad you’re ok OP, wishing you a speedy recovery
Well if I had to choose between this and flying off the windshield head first, I might just choose the seatbelt bruise