Protest-related injuries during the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone protest in Seattle, Washington, USA in 2020

George Floyd's death in 2020 galvanised large protests around the country, including the emergence of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington, a non-policed, organised protest region that may have differing injury risks than other regions. We sought to quantitatively describe characteristics of injuries related to protests documented at visits to two nearby major emergency departments, including the only Level 1 trauma centre in the state.

Using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision code inclusion criteria, we identified 1938 unique patient visits across the two emergency departments from 29 May 2020 and 1 July 2020. We reviewed provider notes to identify keywords to determine if the visit was related to the CHAZ protest. We quantitatively described demographics and injury characteristics.

We identified 48 injury visits related to the protest, with 25 from assault, 11 from crowd-control weapons and 8 from ground-level falls. Crowd-control weapons consisted of five visits from pepper spray, five from tear gas and a smaller number from flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets or other projectiles or a baton. In terms of body region injuries, 23 involved the head, 13 involved the knee and lower leg and 11 involved the thorax. Five patients required transfer to the operating room for surgery and admission and two died.

The demonstrations during the CHAZ in Seattle in 2020 resulted in several violent injuries. Given the high proportion of assault and head injuries, these injury patterns can help prepare healthcare workers and first responders to plan care needs during protests.