Top Summer Injuries to Avoid

Top Summer Injuries to Avoid

 

Although there are always unforeseeable accidents, practicing basic summer safety tips will reduce the chance of a trip to the ER this summer.

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The Most Common Injuries

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. Of course, it's a top injury in the winter too, but people are 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. The toddler who learns to climb up the couch and goes through the screen, out the window, and falling to the ground is one fall that could cause a devastating injury.

For kids in the summer, sports injuries and bicycle injuries are the next most common, 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.

"I would remind readers that sunburns (although not typically thought of as a cause of injury) are also a common cause of ED visits," Ranny said.

Foot Injuries Common yet Easily Preventable

Aside from the more commonly known injuries, summer footwear, or lack of, plays a big part in the injuries that are seen in the emergency department in the summer. Children and adults alike love wearing flip flops and bare feet in the summer, but it's not always a safe choice.

"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," said Greg Lockhart, a doctor at the Hasbro Children's Hospital Emergency Department.

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. "We really are doing a lousy job of taking care of our feet," Lockhart said.

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.

Brush up on summer safety tips here.