Study by Denver ER Surgeon Confirms PTSD in Survivors of Auto Accidents
Hi. My name is Scott O’Sullivan and this is a quick piece about an article that I heard back in 2014 at Colorado Public Radio about a doctor, Dr. Jurkovich from Denver Health about PTSD. He’s an ER doctor, an ER surgeon, and he has done a study in Denver General [now Denver Health], and helping other doctors around the country conduct these studies about PTSD in the general population.
Not PTSD just from returning soldiers from overseas, but from the general population, like you and me. And what he has found is that people who have been injured in auto accidents or assaults, or victims of some sort of violence, do experience PTSD, and it is quite prevalent within our society and within victims who present to his ER.
He has determined that about 20 to 30 percent of people who go to his ER end up having PTSD and have it throughout the course of a year post accident or post trauma, and it affects their ability to return to normal daily activities in their normal life.
This is really important because it helps us not only help our
clients get proper diagnoses and proper treatment, but also helps us in the courtroom so that someday, if my client’s case goes to trial, we have the research and the tools that our therapists and other people who have treated our clients can help use to establish that they do have PTSD and that their symptoms are real, and it’s not just made up and not just them being wimps, or whatever reason for why the defense thinks these people, our clients, shouldn’t have PTSD.
This is important, and if you want to take a look or hear this piece, you can go to Colorado Public Radio at CPR.org and read the article here.