Apr 23, 2021 04:49 pm | Kevin<\/h4>\n
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As several of you have informed me, a case of W59.22XA has been reported in Florida, and because (1) these are quite rare and (2) I am remarkably bored today I decided I needed to inform the rest of you immediately.<\/em><\/p>\n As some of you obviously recall, a while back we discussed the remarkable number of medical-insurance billing codes that were implemented in the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), \u201cremarkable\u201d being somewhere north of 70,000, and maybe up to 140,000, depending on how you count and who you believe. The huge number of codes allowed for better (or at least more precise) classification of injuries, as well as some injuries that seemed likely to be so incredibly rare that we could probably do without a specific code for them. See \u201cInjury Code W59.22XA: Struck by Turtle<\/a>\u201d (Sept. 13, 2011) (also noting codes devoted to classifying things like \u201cunspecified spacecraft accident\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n I found that sufficiently amusing (or was sufficiently bored) that more research followed. See \u201cMore on the Risk of Death by Turtle<\/a>\u201d (Sept. 14, 2011) (citing four previous reports of people being struck by flying turtles, three in 20th-century China and one even less verifiable report dated to 456 B.C.). And then yet more research, some by me and some by similarly amused (or bored) readers. \u201cFurther Reactions to the Turtle Code Controversy<\/a>\u201d (Sept. 23, 2011) (mentioning, e.g., X7402 (\u201cIntentional self-harm by paintball gun\u201d), V9603X (\u201cBalloon collision\u201d), and S3661X (\u201cPrimary blast injury of rectum\u201d)).<\/em><\/p>\n Then, in 2016, came a fairly credible report that someone had in fact been struck by a flying turtle in Florida, the explanation apparently being that the turtle was trying to cross the highway and was somehow knocked up into the air, crashing through another motorist\u2019s windshield. However, that proved to be sort of a false alarm, as it turned out the turtle did not actually make contact with the person in that car. See \u201cA Case of \u2018Struck by Turtle\u2019 (Almost)<\/a>\u201d (May 17, 2016). So close, and yet not a W59.22XA. Would it ever happen?<\/em><\/p>\n Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n A turtle crashed through the windshield of a vehicle on Interstate 95 near Port Orange on Wednesday morning, hitting a woman in the head and sending her to the hospital, authorities said.<\/p>\n Daytona Beach News-Journal<\/em> (Apr. 21, 2021)<\/a>.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Happily, there were no serious injuries to either party. The woman (a passenger) did suffer a cut above one of her eyes, and needed treatment, but she did not lose consciousness. The turtle reportedly suffered only scratches to its shell and was released after questioning.<\/em><\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to know what a 911 call following a turtle-involved assault sounds like, the News-Journal has you covered. Apparently because the car\u2019s occupants pulled over and got out to call 911, they initially didn\u2019t know what had come through the windshield. \u201cIs it in her head?\u201d the dispatcher asked, meaning the object. \u201cYes,\u201d the driver responded, thinking she meant the cut. The turtle was not, however, stuck in the woman\u2019s head, but rather was resting on the front seat, probably extremely dazed. Only at about the four-minute mark does a passerby who looked in the car and inform them that they had been struck by a turtle. \u201cAn actual turtle?\u201d the driver asked. Yes, apparently, although as the News-Journal noted, \u201c[t]he species \u2026 was not immediately known,\u201d so it could have been a terrapin or a tortoise or something.<\/em><\/p>\n I can\u2019t remember if there are separate codes for those, and not even I am bored enough to go look that up.<\/em><\/p>\n Those are all the details I have available. Please join me in wishing both victims a speedy recovery, and in congratulating whoever at the hospital was finally able to use this long-neglected ICD code.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever been whacked by a turtle? Probably not, but it’s something to consider, if you’re either (1) an insurance company employee tasked with coming up with an individual medical code for every possible insurable — or insurance-company-sleazing-out-of-paying — medical problem; … Continue reading