Injury pervades everyday life—for everyone. Although some people sustain injuries of greater severity more frequently than others, virtually no one is spared the pain, distraction, and incapacity caused by injury. The National Safety Council (USA) estimates that the annual cost of injury in the United States, alone, is almost $600 billion and about 4 of every 10 admissions to hospital emergency rooms or hospital clinics are for treatment of injury. The number of emergency room visits in the United States represented by that proportion is nearly 40 million.
Nonfatal accident statistics are even more astounding. Disabling injuries affect over 20 million people in the United States each year, and every 10 minutes, two people are killed and more than 390 suffer a disabling injury. On average, there are 12 deaths from unintentional injury and more than 2,300 disabling injuries every hour, every year in the United States. Despite successful efforts at injury reduction in some areas, a substantial number of us will be victims of injury.
Within this context, the two major areas of the Bone & Joint Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation Center are: (1) musculoskeletal injury and arthritis and (2) head injury and concussion.
Carol Hutchins has seen a lot as a college softball player, and now as coach of the Wolverines for more than 25 years. Hutchins coached the team in 2005, winning the first NCAA championship title ever won by a softball team located north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
