A Time of Change

With the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, so many things have changed. The Parkrose Clinic is temporarily closed and Dr. Halbert is moving his practice to a new location on NE Russell St. just off MLK, above the old Russell Street BBQ. The new location is not yet open, but he is seeing limited patients at his humble home office on SE 63rd Ave in the meantime.

In order to comply with all board and state orders, he is currently seeing only patients whose condition will significantly worsen without care OR who would otherwise need to seek urgent or emergent care for pain management OR who may be harmed by postponing care, including but not limited to recent motor vehicle crashes. If you require care as limited above, please do book here. In light of the virus, Dr. Halbert asks that you wear freshly laundered clothes, wash your hands as you leave your house, and bring face protection the wear throughout the visit. He will be doing the same, and using extra cleaning procedures on the table and door knobs between patients to help minimize the risk of transmission.

If you have any concerns about needing treatment or your health records during this transition, please contact Dr. Halbert at evanchiro@gmail.com.

Please be safe out there everyone!

How could a person get injured in a low speed collision?

There are many factors involved in how or why a person may be injured, even when the car shows little or no damage. Rear impact collisions setup the neck for a whiplash injury. The car moves forward, the seat pushes your body forward and your neck lags behind, then the tissues stretch out until it’s pulled forward very quickly (much quicker than the speed at which the car was hit). The body is stopped by the seat belt, then your head continues forward until again pulled back by your stretching tissues.

The body tissues in the neck like muscles and ligaments injured in whiplash are generally durable, but it’s a matter a timing. They can handle heavier loads if the load is applied in a safe and slow fashion. The quicker the load is applied, the less of a load the tissues will be able to handle before failure. Imagine a stunt person jumping off a building. They can handle the load of the impact by slowing their body from falling speed to stopped either a) over a long period of time by landing on a fancy air bag or b) over a short period of time by hitting the pavement. Obviously, loads applied over shorter periods of time are more damaging.

Think about this crash test discussed by Dr. Arthur C. Croft in his Whiplash and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: ”The average head weighs about 8-10 lb [under normal gravity]. This is the force her neck muscle must support in the horizontal position. If we increased this force to 12.8 times that of gravity [what happened when her head was accelerated and pulled forward over a very short period of time], her head would effectively weight about 102 to 128 lb…So, the volunteer in this crash test had approximately that load placed on her neck over a span of just two tenths of a second.” That’s enough weight over a short enough period to surpass the tissue’s ability to resist damage, especially if the person is unaware of the impending collision and cannot brace for impact.

Don’t let an undamaged bumper fool you. If you get rear-ended, get their insurance information, because you may be injured even if you don’t feel it immediately. If you are injured, please get treatment to improve your chances of better recovery and reduce the likelihood of permanent injury.