With the onset of warm weather, the number of patients at the Emergency Medical Center of the Children's Hospital has significantly increased.
Most children are admitted with injuries sustained while riding bicycles and scooters without protective gear, as well as during trampoline jumps. Medical professionals warn that it only takes one unfortunate fall for the consequences to last a lifetime, reports TV3 News.
After the holiday weekend, 286 children sought help at the Emergency Medical Center of the Children's Hospital on Tuesday — the highest number of patients in a single day in recent years.
The chief physician of the Emergency Center of the Children's Clinical University Hospital, Dace Barkevica, says: “Yes, over the past week we have indeed observed a very large influx of patients, and we are regularly working under high load.”
Children most often arrive at the hospital with bruises or fractures of the arms, legs, back, and nose, as well as head injuries. Medical professionals particularly emphasize that very young children, including those under three years old, are also admitted to the hospital.
Children's Hospital physician assistant Laura Krivane Kampare notes:
“We always warn that a child can end up in intensive care because we only have one head, and head injuries are very serious. We can never say how exactly a head injury will end for your child. Initially, there may be nothing, but symptoms can develop after one, two, three, or even twenty-four hours.”
In warm weather, another common cause of injuries is trampolines. Most often, the arms, legs, and head are affected, but in some cases, the consequences can be very severe. This is also reminded by a recent tragedy in Lithuania, where a three-year-old girl died after an accident on a trampoline.
Laura Krivane Kampare says:
“Yes, trampoline injuries are very serious, especially if the trampoline is not equipped properly. It is often more convenient and cheaper to buy a trampoline without protective pads on the springs and without an internal net in front of those springs. This is very important, and the trampoline is intended for only one person at a time.”
Medical professionals emphasize that it only takes one unfortunate fall for the consequences to last a child’s entire life, so they once again urge parents to provide children with protective gear appropriate for the type of activity.
