Hotline to Handle Queries About Traumatic Injuries
Kyle Lavender sees a lot of traumatic injuries from car, bike and off-road vehicle crashes. And he’s no stranger to drowning scenes, either.
What really strikes him, he says, is how much of the sorrow and suffering he sees could have been avoided through simple steps like wearing helmets or paying close attention to what others — especially children — are doing.
“We very, very rarely, unfortunately, see kids wear helmets,” says Lavender, a paramedic with the Salt Lake City Fire Department and flight paramedic for Intermountain Health Care’s Life Flight program. “A minor injury can cause a lot of problems. Kids and adults should wear helmets all the time on bikes or motorized Go- peds or anything with wheels,” aside from cars. In cars, they need seat belts. And small children must be buckled into properly installed safety seats or boosters, depending on their age and size.
Traumatic injury prevention and recovery is the focus of the Deseret Morning News/IHC Hotline Saturday. Lavender and Renee Holleran, nurse manager for Life Flight’s adult transport services, will take phoned-in questions from 10 a.m. to noon on how to avoid them and what to do if one does occur.
“A helmet is the absolute bare minimum,” Lavender says. “Knee pads and elbow pads and even wrist braces are better.” In case of a fall, it would at least “prevent nasty road rashes.”
Dressing appropriately isn’t just for children, either. When Holleran goes hiking or biking, she sees a little of everything on the trail, from people who have full protective gear to those who wear shorts and have bare heads. “They could be seriously injured if they fall off their bike.
“That’s true for any sort of outdoor activity,” she says, adding it’s hard to get people to do when it’s hot outside and they’re already engaged in activities that make them sweat. But it’s important.
When it’s hot or during strenuous activity, it’s important to make sure plenty of water’s available, she says. Paramedics get called out often to help hikers who didn’t drink enough fluids or have basic survival kits. “You’re not walking in the park. You can get lost and have serious problems. Hikers have died,” she says, “and it’s easy to have enough water with you.”
She suggests a hiking survival kit include a cell phone and, for those doing serious back-country hiking, some kind of navigational tool. A lot of hikers don’t even have a map. It’s also important to let people know where you’re going, when you expect to be back and to be familiar with the area. With the Internet, “you can get all sorts of information on where you’re going.”
Heat is most dangerous to children and older people but can affect anyone. “Dehydration is a very big issue,” Holleran says. “The other mistake people make is to think that things like soda pop are a good replacement (for fluids). It’s not.” Someone who is seriously sweating must also replace electrolytes, easily achieved with sports drinks made for that purpose.
The first symptom of heat sickness is likely to be a headache and generally not feeling good. Nausea and irritability may follow. Confusion is serious. The main thing is to get something to drink quickly. “People think you need IV lines,” she says. “Actually, you hydrate more quickly just by drinking. But when you get past a certain point and are nauseated or vomiting, you’re not going to drink.”
Anyone suffering heat effects should be taken to a cool place, if possible. Getting someone wet helps cool them down quickly. Take it seriously, she says, because “the mortality rate with heat stroke is really high no matter what age you are.”
Much of summer safety starts with lessons enforced at home. Children need to be taught not only to wear seat belts and helmets, Holleran and Lavender say, but also to avoid critters they don’t know — from the strange dog to the unidentified spider or snake. They also need to be taught to stay away from the water’s edge and from fire.
Adult vigilance is key. Lavender cites the Primary Children’s Medical Center “spot the tot” campaign that tells drivers to take an extra 10 seconds to walk around their cars and see there are no little people who could be run over. They need to know where the children are because it only takes a minute to wander off and fall into a stream or a pool that’s not locked up.
“Teach kids respect for swimming pools. Make sure they have swim lessons,” says Lavender. He’s a member of a swift-water rescue team and recently, during a training session in a river, “it was all I could do to swim out of it at times,” he says. “With minimal skills and no protective equipment, I can’t even tell you how quickly someone would be gone.”
Tomorrow: What to do when someone’s hurt
Paramedic, nurse answer hotline
Traumatic injuries and how to avoid them will be discussed on Saturday’s Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Health Care Hotline. From 10 a.m. to noon, Kyle Lavender, flight paramedic, and Renee Holleran, chief flight nurse, both of IHC’s Life Flight program, will take phoned-in questions. The toll-free number is 1-800-925- 8177.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com