(NewsNation) — Hospitals located near the U.S.-Mexico border experienced a major uptick in patients who sustained injuries while attempting to enter the United States in 2023, according to multiple published reports.
Medical facilities in California, Arizona, and Texas all saw a surge of people seeking medical care after falling off the border wall, which extends more than 400 miles. At the University of California, San Diego trauma center alone, 455 patients were treated for injuries linked to attempts to cross the border in 2023, The Guardian reported, part of a trend showing more injuries occuring along the border.
A total of 441 UCSD trauma center patients were injured falling from the wall on the U.S. side, the newspaper reported. The 2023 data also indicated that for the first time, more women were brought to the facility for border wall-related injuries than men.
The total number of migrant injuries at the UCSD trauma center jumped from 331 in 2022. Comparatively, 42 people injured at the wall were treated at the facility in 2019. At the same hospital, deaths tied to the border wall went from zero between 2016-19 to 23 since, the New York Times reported.
Injuries and deaths at the border have increased since former President Donald Trump ordered that the height of the border wall be raised to 30 feet from 17 feet. Hospital officials in El Paso, Texas, say that injuries treated at a local university medical center range from broken ankles, feet and legs to more serious injuries such as life-threatening spinal and cranial injuries.
Susan McLean, surgical ICU medical director at an El Paso hospital, told USA Today that mortality rates from border wall falls are higher than those linked to COVID-19.
“And it is something that is happening all up and down the border,” McLeod told USA Today.
Alexander Tenorio, a resident neurosurgeon at the UCSD trauma center, told The Guardian that many patients brought to the hospital arrived with multiple fractures. He said that the human body is not built to withstand a fall of 30 feet, which equates to falling from a three-story window.
In addition to the surge in serious injuries, hospitals have also seen costs for treating patients jump significantly. The New York Times reported that San Diego’s two major trauma centers, UCSD and Scripps Mercy Hospital, have seen costs associated with treating these injuries go from $11 million between 2016-19 to $72 million from 2020-22.
The newspaper also reported that border agents have made 2.4 million apprehensions at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which ended in September. In October, the Biden administration pledged to build a new section of the border wall in Texas amid a steady increase in migrants making their way into the United States.
In a statement issued to the Times regarding the year-to-year jump in injuries and deaths at the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has a message for anyone considering crossing the border illegally.
“Don’t do it,” the statement said. “When migrants cross the border illegally, they put their lives in peril.”