Global health is an extremely broad, and extremely deep, field of research and tutelage within academic institutions and international organisations. Global health schemes seek to understand key disparities in health outcomes between nation states, and to strive for better dissemination of technologies and treatments amongst them. Organisations like the Global Health Council are instrumental in bringing these issues to the forefront.
However, global health often focuses on congenital conditions or diseases; there is rarely much in the way of crossover between general global health missions and the outcomes of physical accidents or incidents. Indeed, maiming by amputation is an unfortunately, and surprisingly, common outcome globally – with a wide scope and a wider variety of potential causes. But what is there to understand about amputations on a global scale?
Global Statistics
According to a recent study, which examined the global burden of traumatic amputation across 204 countries around the world, the ‘prevalence number’ of traumatic amputations across all featured countries was 552.45 million in 2019. This figure had increased by nearly 200 million since 1990, indicating a growing global burden of traumatic amputation – and a key need for global health organisations to focus on targeted healthcare to approach and mitigate impacts.
The Scope of Amputation Injury
Amputation injuries have different impacts according to their severity – and there is a wide variety of forms that an amputation injury can take. The above study found that the most common forms of amputation suffered were finger amputations. However, these injuries have relatively small burdens on victims in comparison to other injuries; lower limb amputations were found to create the highest ‘burden of disability’.
Causes of Amputation
The same study found that the most common causes for such traumatic amputations were mechanical in nature, or otherwise falls from height. However, these causes are broad in and of themselves – and do not describe all possibilities for such injuries – nor do they describe the situations that give rise to such potential risks.
With regard to the latter point, many amputations are suffered as a result of workplace negligence or injury. In such cases, amputation claims are a viable route to claiming compensation for loss of income and permanent changes to quality of life (which we will touch upon shortly). Others are unfortunate enough to lose limbs to disease or infection, with little recourse available to them.
Impact on Quality of Life
As touched upon regarding the scope of amputation injuries, different injuries can have different outcomes for victims. Lower-limb amputations were found to create the most issues post-amputation, with regard to disability. Any amputation injury requires a period of recovery and rehabilitation, but lower-limb injuries in particular require a long process of recovery. In this process, amputees have to re-learn to walk with new apparatus, or learn to move with a new ancillary vehicle such as a wheelchair.
