case_images: PMC3567954_01
case_images: A young mother with pectus excavatum holding her two-year-old boy in her arms during the car accident. Caudal view.
case_images: 1752-1947-7-22-1.jpg
case_images: PMC3567954_01_1752-1947-7-22-1.jpg
case_images: F1
case_images: A 43-year-old Caucasian German woman wearing a three-point seatbelt and holding her two-year-old boy in her arms in the front passenger seat of a car was involved in a head-on collision with a tree (Figure 1).
case_images: Computed tomography scan showing the three-cm pericardial effusion.
case_images: 1752-1947-7-22-2.jpg
case_images: PMC3567954_01_1752-1947-7-22-2.jpg
case_images: F2
case_images: Trauma did not detect any free intraperitoneal fluid. The initial radiological assessment (chest, pelvic and cervical spine X-ray) showed the clinically evident pectus excavatum, multiple rib fractures and a stable, not dislocated, pelvic fracture. Fifteen minutes after admission she was transported alert and in a cardiopulmonary stable state to the computed tomography (CT) scanner. The CT scan demonstrated a zygomatic fracture, three-cm pericardial effusion (Figure 2), fractures of the 2nd and 3rd ribs, and a pelvic type C fracture. 
case_images: Intraoperative photo of the one-cm left atrial laceration.
case_images: 1752-1947-7-22-3.jpg
case_images: PMC3567954_01_1752-1947-7-22-3.jpg
case_images: F3
case_images: Intraoperatively, a combined one-cm laceration of the left atrium and right ventricle was noted (Figure 3).