Summer fun tends to mean more trips to the emergency room in what are often preventable accidents. Practice basic summer safety to avoid common summertime injuries including bicycle injuries, playground mishaps, burns and pool-side falls.
The most common reason that both adult and pediatric patients end up in the emergency room in the summer are falls, according to Megan Ranny, an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital. People tend to be more active in the summer, leading to more accidental falls.
Slippery pool sides, wet bathroom floors after a post-beach shower and falling off a bike without a helmet are the main ways that children and adults end up taking a serious spill.
Be aware of furniture that is placed near windows when you have them open this summer. A toddler who learns to climb up onto the couch can easily goes through the screen, out the window, and fall to the ground. This is one fall that could cause a deadly injury.
Sports injuries and bicycle injuries are also common in the summer, especially for children. This is closely followed by playground injuries, insect bites, and car crashes.
Adults have their fair share of accidents in the summer, too. Motor vehicle crashes, assaults, sports injuries, and sprains or strains are most commonly seen in the ER in the summer.
Do you or your child wear flip flops? Summer footwear, or lack of, plays a big part in the injuries that are seen in the emergency department every summer. Children and adults alike love wearing flip flops and bare feet in the summer, but it's not always a safe choice.
Greg Lockhart, a doctor at the Hasbro Children's Hospital ED in Providence, RI states, "The injuries that get old after a while are the foot injuries that occur when kids are wearing flimsy or no footwear at all, because they feel like they can go out and do what they usually do in sneakers."
The result? Foot lacerations, puncture wounds, toe sprains and fractures—all of which are generally occurring on feet that are dirty and prone to getting infected.
Yet another preventable injury that Dr. Lockhart can't seem to stress enough? Burns.
"Burns, burns, burns: sunburns, barbecue burns, fire pit burns -- all of them preventable!" he said.
Be safe and pay attention to some injury-prevention basics this summer: slow down, don't wear flip flops when biking or running, wear a helmet and don't forget to use sunblock.
The American Association of Pediatrics has more tips on summer safety. Print the AAP summer safety tip sheet here.
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