A new crisis at the border: Traumatic injuries caused by falls from Trump’s 30-foot wall

It was 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I was a 13-year-old kid, growing up in South Los Angeles. I packed my bags and headed downtown, where I set up a cardboard box with pens and a rack for shirts on the sidewalk, selling them to passersby. Migrants set up next to me and did the same.

This was my childhood. They all came with nothing, but they cared for me as if I were one of their own. I vowed to fight for them. 

As a neurological surgery resident in San Diego, I recently joined human rights leaders to brief members of Congress and President Biden’s domestic policy advisors on the public health crisis occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border. I was the physician representative of the group, explaining to our elected officials the unnecessary injury and economic burden that new 30-foot barriers are causing.

We urged them to halt construction at Friendship Park, which has been a historic space for binational families at the San Diego-Tijuana border. I fear that these 30-foot barriers will turn this into a place of horrific injuries.

Since the Mexico border wall was raised up to 30 feet, there have been a record number of traumatic injuries from “border falls.” Our hospital costs and hospital stays have also seen a significant rise. Hospital admissions from border falls have increased almost seven times since 2019, and spinal injuries after border falls have cost an additional $26 million.

With the expiration of Title 42, I fear that this trend will only get worse. As a physician, it is my duty to reveal this unnecessary harm and strain on hospital resources. As the son of Mexican immigrants, it is my duty to continue to fight for this vulnerable population.

After my recent visit to Washington, D.C., it was clear that border infrastructure policy is one of the most divisive topics discussed by our elected officials. To be sure, this topic fosters very strong sentiments that can be endlessly debated. However, you cannot disregard objective evidence. For this reason, it is more important than ever for physicians to become ardent advocates and provide a balanced view of the harm from raised border walls.

Our visit did provide a ray of hope. Members of Congress penned a congressional letter urging President Biden to halt further construction of 30-foot barriers at Friendship Park after our briefings. The president’s senior policy advisors also assured us they would brief him on the issue.

This will be a long fight. I am reminded of a border fall patient who had suffered a severe brain injury. His wife and young daughter came to his bedside every day. He had been in a coma for several days when his wife asked me in Spanish, “When will he wake up?” I’ll never forget the horror in their eyes when I responded, “It is very likely that he will never wake up.

These are the people coming here for a better life. These are the people who cared for me as a child. These are the people worth fighting for as a physician.

Physician René Leriche once said, “Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery, where from time to time he goes to pray — a place of bitterness and regret, where he must look for an explanation for his failures.”

Now, it is inevitable that I will carry my own small cemetery. But I ask my physician colleagues to join me in this fight, and hope we don’t look back at this filled with regret. 

Alexander Tenorio is a neurological surgery resident at the University of California, San Diego. He is considered a leading expert on traumatic neurological injuries at the U.S.-Mexico border and has worked with human rights groups to advocate for halting height extensions of these barriers. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexTenorioMD.