If a plane slides off of an icy runway, what does it mean if the media reports three people were “injured”? As a casual reader, that could mean that they stubbed a toe exiting the plane or that they got their lower legs cut off. I don’t these types of descriptions as, well, very descriptive.
What about being “injured” versus “seriously injured” or any other category that the media or any other reporting agency uses?
I think I remember reading that injured means bruises and lascerations, seriously injured meant hospital but not life threatening, critically injured meant hospital ICU time and fatally injured meant injuries leading to dying sometime later.
So Reagan and Pope JP2 would have been critically injured , while JFK and RFK would have been fatally injured.
Declan
I don’t believe that there’s any standard for this, but in the local news media what I’ve noticed is the following:
treated at the scene - usually nothing worse than scrapes or cuts. Emergency people were there anyways, so a band aid was put on the boo-boo.
treated and released - more serious scrapes and cuts. Perhaps even a few stitches taken. This is someone who gets taken to the ER, but leaves within a short time, after what is still basically first aid. This is also where I’d place the lower boundary for “injured.”
injured - usually, by itself this is a bit more serious than “treated and released” though it’s very similar. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that this may include things like broken bones, as well as stitches or binding up sprains. A little more involved than simple first aid, but not exactly complicated care.
seriously injured - generally means, to me, that the persons so labeled were admitted after initial treatment, though there’s no obligation that their injuries are life-threatening.
critically injured - Someone taken to the OR, then up to ICU - if they make it through the surgeries. This is where one will also get actual reports of official hospital conditions: (critical, guarded, etc…)
The AP has no definition for different levels of injuries. I’m confident in saying that there is no other accepted set of standard definitions used in news media (exception: various sports leagues may have defined levels of injury, and I’m ignorant of whether the military uses any standardized descriptions of injury levels).