Millions of Ohio residents are either drivers or pedestrians, and thousands of traffic accidents occur every year. They can range from minor bumps and fender-benders to severe accidents causing catastrophic injuries that are often fatal.
Some types of injuries resulting from car accidents are more common than others, and one of the more serious commonly experienced are fractures of the femur bones. Femur fractures can cause dangerous complications and impact your life in several ways.
Femur fractures resulting from car crashes
The femur bones are the bones within your thigh, with the femur head being the strongest bone in your body. Under normal circumstances, it’s extremely difficult to fracture the femur due to its density.
But collisions unleash tremendous amounts of force, especially ones resulting from vehicles traveling at high speed. With such forces traveling into the human body, even a bone like the femur can fracture or even snap entirely.
Motorcyclists and pedestrians are especially at risk, given that they lack many of the protections car passengers benefit from. A high-speed collision involving a motorcycle or pedestrian can often result in multiple serious injuries, and a fractured femur is frequently one of them.
Why femur fractures are so serious
It’s nearly impossible to fracture the femur without the application of tremendous amounts of force. And when this happens, it’s likely that other parts of the body will also be injured. Surrounding bones, muscles, tissue, blood vessels and ligaments will also often be damaged by an impact that fractures a femur.
This means that a fractured femur is often only one of an assortment of problems you’ll encounter should it happen to you. If the accident was severe enough to break the femur, you’ll likely need urgent medical attention for more than one reason.
But the femur fracture itself is a major medical emergency in its own right. In less severe fractures, you may get away with only a cast and crutches along with a period of rest. But more severe fractures can require metal rods and screws and extensive rehab and physical therapy.
