# external causes coding



## rykin7609 (Feb 23, 2017)

I am going back and forth on this one. Would you code a child falling off of his bicycle on a public road in front of his home W18.9, as a traffic accident, or would you code it as a fall W18.39A, Other fall on same level, along with the activity code, the POC code and Status code?
I have done both and I just can't make up my mind on which is the correct way.
Thanks!


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## AlanPechacek (Mar 6, 2017)

*External Cause Code*

Allana:  As described in your query, the child was injured by a fall while riding his/her bicycle on a public road/street.  That would make this a Pedal Cycle Rider injured in a Transport Accident (V10-V19 Code Set).  Being on a public road makes it an "In Traffic" accident.  There is no mention of a Collision, only a fall, so it would be a "Non-collision" accident.  This would make the code V18.4XX _, a 7 Character code (A, D, or S):  Pedal Cycle Rider/Driver injured in a non-collision, in traffic transport accident.  The Y92 Place of Occurrence code would be Y92.414:  Local residential road/street.  The best Y93 Activity Code would be Y93.89:  "Other" specified activity.  And the Y99 External Cause Status code would be Y99.8:  "Other" External Cause Status for "leisure" or "recreation."  I don't think a W, i.e. Fall Code, would be correct for this.

Respectfully submitted, Alan Pechacek, M.D. (icd10orthocoder.com)


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