In the mid-1990s San Diego’s conservative congressman Duncan Hunter led the charge to construct a fence to curb illegal immigration, and the federal government used Vietnam-era surplus landing pads turned upright to form an initial 10-foot barrier that stands to this day.
Over decade later, a second and perhaps third layer of fencing is in the works. The second already stands on about two-thirds of the San Diego area border. It is nearly twice as high as the original fencing.
As this fence went up, Dr. Raul Coimbra, in the University of California San Diego Trauma Center, began to notice a significant number of people – mostly young men – landing in his emergency room after a fall from the fence. He started to count these cases, tallying over 200 attended in the period between 2000 and 2006.
According to Coimbra, the numbers are only going up. He estimates the hospital treated nearly two such patients a week in the 2007 calendar year, at an average cost of $18,000 per patient.
Most have severe lower extremity injuries that require extensive orthopedic reconstruction.
Coimbra says he thinks those who come to the UCSD Trauma Center are only the tip of the iceberg since it is the regional destination for more severely injured patients.
In this story, Coimbra describes how he sees these patients as a public health problem, and suggests that as a third (potentially 40-foot) layer of fencing goes in, he expects to see even more of them.
Ariana Quintero and Lina builes says: Borders aroun the world are built with different materials. All borders have the same problems: people are being wounded at the borders far to often. Why don’t goverment look for alternative methods to help immigrants? colt be to create temporary permits that let people cross the border to earn and save money and then returned home. If we can do this people’s lives will be saved.
Truth be told, we can build a fence 100 feet tall and those that are truly determined will find a way over, under, or through it.