Pediatric crash injury research: the challenge of informed consent.

Crash injuries are the leading cause of death in the pediatric population. Clinical research studies aimed at improving the assessment and treatment of pediatric crash injuries are necessary to ultimately reduce morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population. While informed consent is an essential component to any human subject research study, with it come several challenges for injury science investigators. We report the case of an 8-year-old boy involved in a traffic collision and the issues surrounding the refusal of enrollment in a prospective research study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]