Did you know over 17,000 children are treated for lawnmower injuries each year in the US, resulting in 4,000 trips to the ER. About 75 children die annually from these injuries.
Our Guest Dale Jarka, MD is leading a first of its kind research study at Children’s Mercy to better define the causes, patterns and effects of Lawn Mower injuries, identify predictors of severe injuries in order to elevate public education and prevent injuries.
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The Importance of Reducing Pediatric Lawnmower-Related Injuries
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Learn more about Dale E. Jarka, MD.
Dale E. Jarka, MD
Dr. Dale Jarka has been a faculty in the Department of Orthopeadics at Children’s Mercy since 1992. In addition to faculty, she is also the Medical Director of the Children’s Mercy Kansas Orthopeadic E.R. group. She has BS and MD degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Jarka completed her orthopaedic training at McGill in 1989. She took clinical fellowships in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Kansas in 1990, in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at Arkansas Chldren’s Hospital in 1991, and at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario in 1991-1992. She is Certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. She is also an associate professor of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Her focus is on pediatric orthopeadic surgery, metabolic bone disease and clubfoot deformity.Learn more about Dale E. Jarka, MD.
Transcription:
The Importance of Reducing Pediatric Lawnmower-Related Injuries
Dr. Michael Smith: Our topic today is cutting out lawnmowers injuries, the importance of preventing and reducing pediatric injuries due to lawnmowers. My guest is Dr. Dale Jarka. She is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Mercy – Kansas City. Welcome to the show.
Dr. Dale Jarka, MD: Good morning.
Dr. Smith: Let's talk a little bit first. Lawnmower injuries. How common are these and what are some of the numbers that you guys have?
Dr. Jarka: We recently looked at our 20-year experience with this and we've had a total of 157 patients in 20 years. That averages out to about eight or nine a year, although for some reason, we couldn't figure out in 2015, we actually hit 18. That was really our main impetus to look into this and to work as best as we could to prevent these because they are 100% preventable.
Dr. Smith: Are there any ages that are more prone to this injury, and if so, what are they and why do you think?
Dr. Jarka: There's a couple of very good reasons. When we looked at our numbers, because we’re looking at our population which is 0 to 18, what's called a bimodal distribution, clustered at one age and clustered at an older age, and in the younger ones, the age was clustered around age four. The older one was clustered about age 16.
Dr. Smith: Age four is surprising to me. Let's talk about those two age groups. What's going on with the age four group?
Dr. Jarka: The age four group are often the kids who are either bystanders in the yard around the person who is mowing or they are passengers on the riding lawnmower. I know that lawnmowers are fun, they look pretty cool and they love riding on it with their parent or grandparent, but unfortunately, they can fall off and they can get severely injured, and sometimes injuries can be fatal.
Dr. Smith: That makes sense. The four-year-olds are probably bystanders or passengers having some fun with it. What about as we move into that second bump up to around 16? What's going on there?
Dr. Jarka: That’s where you have the inexperienced mower – the person who says ‘I want to get a summer job, I want to be mowing the lawn and earn some money,’ and they don’t know how to do it safely. That’s why we see those two bumps, one in the younger bump and the other in the older bump. The older kids are more likely to be the ones who are the operators of either the riding lawnmower or the motorized lawnmower.
Dr. Smith: When I think about this, I think about there's the rural setting, there's the city setting – is there a difference there? Are more of the injuries in the city setting, maybe where they're not cutting grass as much in the rural?
Dr. Jarka: We actually looked at that as well and it’s not skewed one or the other. There's residential where they're mowing in the backyard and there's also the rural ones. The rural ones can also be the mechanized farm equipment and there is a very aggressive device known as the brush hog and we've seen some absolutely horrible injuries from that.
Dr. Smith: That brings up a good point. Most of the injuries that are coming in, are they from some of the larger riding lawnmowers versus the push ones?
Dr. Jarka: Yes. When we looked at our numbers and looked and what kind of device was involved, it was probably 2:1 riding lawnmower versus push lawnmower, although a number of people when we did our chart review didn't specify what device it was, but the ones where the device was specified was 2:1 riding the lawnmower versus push lawnmower.
Dr. Smith: When you look at the injuries, are we talking mostly the traumatic injuries or for me, coming from the South, I remember having to cut the lawn in the middle of summer in Houston, Texas, it’s incredibly hot – were there other injuries not just related to trauma?
Dr. Jarka: There are burns. You can certainly burn yourself on the hot motor and hot device. We were mostly looking at these orthopedic related injuries, but certainly, burns can be part of this as well.
Dr. Smith: Let's talk then what exactly are you guys doing at Children’s Mercy? I know you've looked at the numbers now, you’ve put together this database. What's the next step? What do we want to accomplish from this?
Dr. Jarka: We want to do public education. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a policy and they already disseminate this information that there should be no passengers on a riding lawnmower – just the operator – and the recommended age to start using the riding lawnmower is 16 years of age and the recommended age to start using a push motorized motor is 12. We shouldn’t have younger people than that on devices that they're not ready for. They don’t know how to manage them, they don’t have the maturity, they may also be the one who is doing the mowing and the younger sibling is around and they don’t know that they need to keep the younger sibling away. It’s a matter of maturity and motor skills too.
Dr. Smith: How are we going to educate the community? Are there any plans for pamphlets? Is there going to be public service announcements? How are we going to get this word?
Dr. Jarka: One of our goals is to have some public service announcements. Already on riding lawnmowers, one of the nurse practitioners I work with showed me the key fob of her new riding mower and it had the little pictograms of what not to do on the key fob. The manufacturers are involved in trying to make them safer. There are things that are built into the device as there's the kill switch, there's one where if you have to actively be gripping the bar of the push motors to actually get the engine to engage, and some of them the riding mowers will not mow if the person is not seated on the actual seat. They're trying to make those safer, but essentially, it’s getting the word out. I’d love to do PSAs every year because we seem to see a bump when mowing season starts. Mowing season starts about April in this area and it usually goes until about October.
Dr. Smith: That’s when you start to see some of the injuries come in and I think you're right. I think the best thing we can do is educate. I like the idea that the manufacturers are doing things to make these devices safer as well. I want to thank you for the work that you're doing at Children’s Mercy and thank you for coming on the show today. You're listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy – Kansas City. For more information, you can go to childrensmercy.org. That’s childrensmercy.org. I'm Dr. Mike Smith. Thanks for listening.
The Importance of Reducing Pediatric Lawnmower-Related Injuries
Dr. Michael Smith: Our topic today is cutting out lawnmowers injuries, the importance of preventing and reducing pediatric injuries due to lawnmowers. My guest is Dr. Dale Jarka. She is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Mercy – Kansas City. Welcome to the show.
Dr. Dale Jarka, MD: Good morning.
Dr. Smith: Let's talk a little bit first. Lawnmower injuries. How common are these and what are some of the numbers that you guys have?
Dr. Jarka: We recently looked at our 20-year experience with this and we've had a total of 157 patients in 20 years. That averages out to about eight or nine a year, although for some reason, we couldn't figure out in 2015, we actually hit 18. That was really our main impetus to look into this and to work as best as we could to prevent these because they are 100% preventable.
Dr. Smith: Are there any ages that are more prone to this injury, and if so, what are they and why do you think?
Dr. Jarka: There's a couple of very good reasons. When we looked at our numbers, because we’re looking at our population which is 0 to 18, what's called a bimodal distribution, clustered at one age and clustered at an older age, and in the younger ones, the age was clustered around age four. The older one was clustered about age 16.
Dr. Smith: Age four is surprising to me. Let's talk about those two age groups. What's going on with the age four group?
Dr. Jarka: The age four group are often the kids who are either bystanders in the yard around the person who is mowing or they are passengers on the riding lawnmower. I know that lawnmowers are fun, they look pretty cool and they love riding on it with their parent or grandparent, but unfortunately, they can fall off and they can get severely injured, and sometimes injuries can be fatal.
Dr. Smith: That makes sense. The four-year-olds are probably bystanders or passengers having some fun with it. What about as we move into that second bump up to around 16? What's going on there?
Dr. Jarka: That’s where you have the inexperienced mower – the person who says ‘I want to get a summer job, I want to be mowing the lawn and earn some money,’ and they don’t know how to do it safely. That’s why we see those two bumps, one in the younger bump and the other in the older bump. The older kids are more likely to be the ones who are the operators of either the riding lawnmower or the motorized lawnmower.
Dr. Smith: When I think about this, I think about there's the rural setting, there's the city setting – is there a difference there? Are more of the injuries in the city setting, maybe where they're not cutting grass as much in the rural?
Dr. Jarka: We actually looked at that as well and it’s not skewed one or the other. There's residential where they're mowing in the backyard and there's also the rural ones. The rural ones can also be the mechanized farm equipment and there is a very aggressive device known as the brush hog and we've seen some absolutely horrible injuries from that.
Dr. Smith: That brings up a good point. Most of the injuries that are coming in, are they from some of the larger riding lawnmowers versus the push ones?
Dr. Jarka: Yes. When we looked at our numbers and looked and what kind of device was involved, it was probably 2:1 riding lawnmower versus push lawnmower, although a number of people when we did our chart review didn't specify what device it was, but the ones where the device was specified was 2:1 riding the lawnmower versus push lawnmower.
Dr. Smith: When you look at the injuries, are we talking mostly the traumatic injuries or for me, coming from the South, I remember having to cut the lawn in the middle of summer in Houston, Texas, it’s incredibly hot – were there other injuries not just related to trauma?
Dr. Jarka: There are burns. You can certainly burn yourself on the hot motor and hot device. We were mostly looking at these orthopedic related injuries, but certainly, burns can be part of this as well.
Dr. Smith: Let's talk then what exactly are you guys doing at Children’s Mercy? I know you've looked at the numbers now, you’ve put together this database. What's the next step? What do we want to accomplish from this?
Dr. Jarka: We want to do public education. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a policy and they already disseminate this information that there should be no passengers on a riding lawnmower – just the operator – and the recommended age to start using the riding lawnmower is 16 years of age and the recommended age to start using a push motorized motor is 12. We shouldn’t have younger people than that on devices that they're not ready for. They don’t know how to manage them, they don’t have the maturity, they may also be the one who is doing the mowing and the younger sibling is around and they don’t know that they need to keep the younger sibling away. It’s a matter of maturity and motor skills too.
Dr. Smith: How are we going to educate the community? Are there any plans for pamphlets? Is there going to be public service announcements? How are we going to get this word?
Dr. Jarka: One of our goals is to have some public service announcements. Already on riding lawnmowers, one of the nurse practitioners I work with showed me the key fob of her new riding mower and it had the little pictograms of what not to do on the key fob. The manufacturers are involved in trying to make them safer. There are things that are built into the device as there's the kill switch, there's one where if you have to actively be gripping the bar of the push motors to actually get the engine to engage, and some of them the riding mowers will not mow if the person is not seated on the actual seat. They're trying to make those safer, but essentially, it’s getting the word out. I’d love to do PSAs every year because we seem to see a bump when mowing season starts. Mowing season starts about April in this area and it usually goes until about October.
Dr. Smith: That’s when you start to see some of the injuries come in and I think you're right. I think the best thing we can do is educate. I like the idea that the manufacturers are doing things to make these devices safer as well. I want to thank you for the work that you're doing at Children’s Mercy and thank you for coming on the show today. You're listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy – Kansas City. For more information, you can go to childrensmercy.org. That’s childrensmercy.org. I'm Dr. Mike Smith. Thanks for listening.