Kicked by a Horse

Hi! Welcome to AN! The largest online nursing community!

I am sorry your brother, and your family, had such a traumatic experience when he was a child. The 1950's? Wow that is a long time ago.

The first intensive care units (ICUs) were developed in the 1950s in response to the need for special areas in hospitals that could provide complex care for critically ill patients the result of the specialized care, patient survival rates improved dramatically. It isn't just the difference of an ICU but the advancement of the ability to diagnose what exactly the problem is with CT scanners and MRI scans so surgeons can surgically open the skull and treat underlying bleeding on the brain.

anne skyvington How different would his treatment have been from today? There were no ICUs. What's a possible scenario?

His care might not change at all. Even today if there is nothing to surgically to repair we watch....and wait.

When I was a little girl my Uncle was hit by a car as he helped a motorist that had a flat tire. He arrived to the first hospital just fine but due to a lack of testing he was transferred to another facility. IN those days the ambulance was only 2 drivers with little or no training that didn't even sit with the patient in the back of the station wagon looking ambulance. When they arrived at the new hospital my Uncle was deceased.

He bleed to death from a pelvic fracture.

While there would still be a risk today his death would probably not occur due the diagnostic testing done at every facility and the use of paramedics for transport.

I hope this was what you were looking for.