Charlie Baker had called for an emergency lockdown barring all but essential activities. Schools closed March 12, and by March 24, Massachusetts Gov. The study period encompassed an intense period of COVID-19-related restrictions for the Boston area. While all of the patients in the study acknowledged that their injuries were at the hands of a fellow householder, the damage was not as readily identifiable as domestic abuse, unlike the broken wrists and arms (a typical defensive injury) or broken facial bones or bruises that are more common in cases of intimate partner violence. The victims whose injuries were considered deep tended to have been punched, kicked or hit repeatedly in the abdomen and chest rather than in or around the face. Babina Gosangi, a radiologist who teaches at Yale, said the location of the severe injuries tended to be less evident to the casual observer. However overwhelmed physicians have been by the pandemic, they should be on the lookout for evidence of domestic abuse, she added. “We know that high-risk physical abuse and severe physical injuries are highly associated with homicide,” Khurana said. Bharti Khurana, a radiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who teaches at Harvard Medical School. The results suggest that “victims may be so fearful of COVID-19 that they aren’t reaching us until the abuse is severe,” said Dr. In 2020, however, the number of deep injuries was 28. In the previous three years, the Boston hospital saw a total of 16 “deep” injuries caused by intimate partner violence. The researchers categorized the patients’ injuries by their severity, distinguishing superficial injuries such as bruises and black eyes from deep injuries resulting from strangulation, burns, knives, guns and other objects that can damage internal organs. The more people see wearing face masks and practicing social distancing as ways to protect the health of others, the more likely they are to comply, research shows. Science & Medicine What will it take to persuade people to wear masks? Focus on benefits to others The injuries were also dramatically more severe, prompting concerns that victims had delayed seeking care even as the violence against them escalated. The inquiries that result often bring forth the closely held secret of an abusive partner.Ī new study found that, as the tightest restrictions on nonessential activities began to lift in Massachusetts, physicians at a large hospital in Boston saw a near-doubling of the proportion of domestic abuse cases that resulted in physical injury in comparison with previous years. On the high-tech images they order, radiologists and their physician colleagues in hospital emergency departments are seeing fractured bones and bruised and punctured organs. These doctors who peer beneath a patient’s skin with the help of CT or MRI scans are increasingly seeing evidence of physical abuse by those patients’ domestic partners as a consequence of the months of stay-at-home orders, job loss and escalating family stress that the pandemic has wrought. The toll of COVID-19 does not always show up on a radiologist’s screen as blighted lungs.
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