12 days of trauma can break the bank

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CHICAGO, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. trauma expert tallied up the cost of some holiday injuries and said 12 days of trauma can break the bank financially, physically and emotionally.

Dr. Thomas Esposito, chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns at Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago, said Americans are reporting they plan to spend an average of $854 this year on holiday gifts, but that is pennies compared to the cost of an unplanned trip to the emergency department.

"The cost to an individual and their family is heartbreaking but the cost to public health is bank-breaking," Esposito said in a statement.

Esposito said the following representative cases were chosen randomly from Loyola's trauma patient database and each dollar amount shown is the total for that number of cases with each type of injury. Those totals include the usual and customary charges for services and supplies such as drugs, hospital room and procedures, among others.

Cost of Loyola's 12 Days Of Holiday Trauma were:

--12 Trauma Patients - $9, 924,347.

--11 Bones-a-Broken - $7, 271,721.

-- Ten Traffic Tragedies - $1,857,479.

-- Nine Knifed Warriors - $2,210,873.

-- Eight Skaters Skating - $216,982.

-- Seven Shattered Spleens - $2,762,241.

-- Six From a Shooting - $3, 242, 682.

-- Five Fighting Fools - $1,451,462.

-- Four Females Falling - $2,972,196.

-- Three Twisted Knees - $294, 954.

-- Two Frostbit Toes - $289,931.

-- And one Long-Term Brain Injury - $702,096.