Joey Wahler (Host): The New York Times recently highlighted six things that emergency room doctors wish you'd avoid. We're discussing preventable ER injuries. Our guests from UK Healthcare, Dr. Tama The. He's a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist. And Dr. Blake Davidson an Emergency Medicine Specialist. This is UK HealthCast, a podcast from UK Healthcare.

Thanks for joining us. I am Joey Wahler. Hi there, doctors. Welcome.

Tama The, MD: Thank you.

Blake Davidson, MD: Hi, how are you?

Host: Great. Yourself?

Blake Davidson, MD: Can't complain too much, it's a good day outside.

Host: Excellent. Looks like it. We love the background. So first Dr. The, that times list that we mentioned included people being injured from cutting avocados and bagels in too much of a hurry, jumping on trampolines and petting strange dogs, which kind of runs the gamut, I think we could say. So treating children, first off, what avoidable injuries top your list in particular?

Tama The, MD: Yeah, I love the context that you're providing there, because truly that was a puff piece, right? Like, we don't care about how you cut up an avocado. Like I want kids to go out there and have adventures and break their arms and jump on trampolines and we can fix all of that. But truly, when you think about the things that I would want you to know, how to protect your children, I've only declared about 20 to 30 kids dead in the emergency department in my career.

Anything from infections to trauma and seizures. And the one thing, that I wish every parent would know is safe sleep. Now granted this doesn't count the number of kids that we see in the emergency department that end up going into other places in the hospital, like the operating room and the ICU that end up dying.

But, truly the kids that come into the ER and die, that could be prevented, are truly because they are not following safe sleep patterns. You may have heard about the Back to Sleep initiative from the American Association of Pediatrics, so the ABCs of safe sleep, babies should be alone on their back in their own crib.

And now this is a little bit controversial because there's a lot of people out there, especially if you talk to influencers and stuff that talk about bonding with your child and co-sleeping and how important that is for developing the bond between the patient or and between the child and the family. But it is not just my opinion, it is the opinion of the American Association of Pediatrics that the best way to protect your children is by following the ABCs.

When you think about what these things are, your child should always sleep alone in their crib or their bassinet, not in your bed, not in a chair, not on the sofa. The crib should be boring. There's no blankets, no pillows, no bumper pads, no stuffed animals or toys. They should be on their back. And it is okay to have them in your room, but they should not be in your bed. If they are in your bed, it increases the risk of SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome by 2.7 to 10 times.

You are 10 times more likely to die of SIDS if you sleep with your mother or father than if you were sleeping in your own bed. 70% of SIDS cases occur during bed sharing and when you look at the studies, there's about a thousand infant deaths in the meta-analyses, and 90% of them had at least one of these unsafe sleep risk factors. And so when you asked me as a pediatric emergency medicine doc, what are the absolute important things that all pa, all parents need to know? It is buckle your kid into a car seat and sleep well.

Host: Alright, so sleeping safely and riding safely is a great place to start? Yes?

Tama The, MD: I think so.

Host: Okay. And you, Dr. Davidson, what preventable injuries do you see more on the adult side, would you say?

Blake Davidson, MD: Going back to avocados. I just had a patient overnight last night that cut himself opening an orange. I tried to ask him, I was like, I didn't think that you used knives to peel open oranges, but he said he got some bad ones. So he cut up in his finger. But really, I think safety from that standpoint, there are a lot of other tools that you can use to be able to cut up different type of food items.

So try and prepare yourself from that standpoint. I think the biggest thing that causes the most harm or the most injury, especially around this time of the year, you got spring cleaning activities; is ladder safety. Anytime that you're going to be on an elevated surface, you probably want to be around someone else to be able to help you. So if you are doing anything around the gutters or on the roof, or changing light bulbs that require a ladder, please, have someone else around you and do not get onto the top step of the ladder and be unsafe. There are many injuries that I see from those where people try and do something on their own. They're in an awkward position, they fall off the ladder and end up with a bad spinal injury for the rest of their life.

Host: I would imagine many of those people are relatively newer house owners like myself that are either trying to save a few bucks or trying to feel more manly, or maybe a combination of the two. Right?

Blake Davidson, MD: Oh, certainly I, and, granted I have been a subject to these own bad mistakes before, but, after working this job for quite some time, I got, I get in positions like, you know what? I would make fun of myself if I ended up in the ER, from this activity. So I need to take a step back.

Oh, the other thing around this time of the year, especially with a bunch of yard work, is to always use eye protection. Whenever you're weed eating around the house or doing any sort of if you're building new things, building a new shed using a grinder or chopping wood is to, please, please use some sort of eye protection.

Host: And probably doing that is a good idea as well when using kind of a, any kind of a spray, like for weeding or that type thing as well, just in case. Right?

Blake Davidson, MD: Yeah, absolutely. People with bad allergies, grab a mask or something. I know for me, whenever I am mowing the yard or trying to do anything outside around this type of year is I definitely try and wear some sort of mask to help me from coming in and not being able to breathe.

Host: Gotcha. So switching gears a little, bit back to you, Dr. The, what problems do preventable injuries cause for an emergency room and their staff? Give people an idea of what's going on during the course of the day and how it can be disrupted if people are coming in when basically it could be avoided.

Tama The, MD: Thinking about how to answer that question about the problems of preventable injuries truly, it's not a problem with the ER, like, you know, we'll handle it if you come in. We are well staffed. We have a tremendous amount of resources. Let's say, we can handle if a bus crashes into an orphanage or something, like we can handle all of that.

It's the psychological side effects of treating kids who have devastating lifelong injuries be that could have been completely prevented. You know, like we see ATVs all the time, ATV accidents where they're driven by an 8-year-old and the 4-year-old who was in the backseat slips out, and then she gets a whole bunch of road rash.

Like that kind of thing sticks with you, and so like, just that, truly the psychological trauma of seeing these kids who come in day after day after day, doing things that their parents absolutely should not have encouraged them to do. I think that's truly the bigger burden.

Host: Interesting. And so picking up on that thought then, Dr. Davidson, is there a fine line for you and yours when you see that type of thing? When you see something avoidable that's because of negligence or something Ill-advised, whether it be a child or an adult, is there a fine line when it comes to stepping in and suggesting that maybe this person not do that again? How do you handle that?

Blake Davidson, MD: Yeah, certainly. I mean, I grew up in a small town in Arkansas. I grew up on a farm around three wheelers, that thankfully are non-existent anymore. And I had a I had an aunt growing up that was a flight medic, and she was always on us about making sure we didn't eat grapes, making sure we chopped up our hot dogs, making sure we wore helmets at every single turn that we did.

So, and as a kid I was like, I don't understand this, I don't understand this. And then now doing this job, I, definitely get it. And I understand kind of the consequences to some of these things that when you're growing up or you're out in that environment, it's not really stressed and it's just part of the culture, to partake in these types of activities. I think the biggest part of my job is like Dr. The said, I can take care of your injuries. I can sew up your lacerations, I can fix your broken bones. We can do things like that.

But the thing that I can do that's probably a little bit more impactful is education. And so talking to them and saying like, Hey, like, next time we could probably wear a seat belt and this would've been avoided or. There are certain activities that we can, or certain preventative actions that we can take, in order to be able to not end up in this situation again.

Host: Okay, so then you have no problem as part of your job letting people know this is not something that should happen again.

Blake Davidson, MD: And I think most people are receptive. I, think if you do something stupid, and you end up hurt from it, that people are generally, a little bit embarrassed, but they also know that, you know, I shouldn't have been doing that. And so it, people are a little bit more receptive to having that feedback of next time let's be a little bit more careful or how these are, how we can prevent it in the future.

Host: Absolutely. So, Dr. The, you made very clear your position on sleeping safely, riding in a vehicle safely if you're a kid. How about other than that, let's say that's all taken care of and now we've gotta deal with kids during the rest of their day and night. What are a few of the other pieces of advice you can give to prevent some other injuries out there?

Tama The, MD: Hmm. I would say, the things that I take from the emergency department and bring home to my own kid, because I've got a 2-year-old, and so I think about the things that, what are the ways that my job has affected the way that I raise my 2-year-old. And truly there's not a lot to it.

I think I probably, if anything I'm a little bit more relaxed with my kid, you know, I want him to climb up trees. I want him to try to climb the side of a building and see if he can fall off the roof. Like, like I want them to do all of those things. But I think having the right guardrails in place for when kids start taking bigger risks. In my head, if you are confident that your kid can swim well then great. Then he's allowed to be in the pool. If he is not, he is not allowed to be in the pool, right? Like, so, so little simple things like that. And then anytime you start to introduce, any kind of machinery into the mix, you're talking about, anything that is goes fast, or moves, like the actual components of the machinery move. We're talking like weed whackers and things that spin around like lawnmowers and things. Anytime you introduce a variable like that, then that's when I think you need to be much more hands-on, right? Like we're talking, it is okay for them to be on a bicycle, but probably not okay to be on a motorized bicycle until you, you are very confident with their abilities.

Host: Is your 2-year-old climbing trees already?

Tama The, MD: I like to think so, but he doesn't seem to like it when I put him up there.

Host: Okay. So Dr. Davidson, how about some simple safety measures people can keep in mind to avoid trips to the ER as adults? Again, apart from what we mentioned earlier, which was some of the outdoor yard stuff, this type of year, for instance, I would imagine as the weather gets warmer, a lot of weekend warriors, so to speak, when it comes to working out. They tend to overdo things, don't they? They want to kind of do a winter's worth of working out all in one day or in one week.

Blake Davidson, MD: Certainly, and I am a product of that as well and have gotten myself into trouble with those things. So I, think the biggest thing is, especially as it gets hotter, is to stay hydrated. Making sure that you're taking appropriate breaks, that you're eating and not trying to work through the entire day. Anytime you're doing any sort of heavy lifting or, things that require, the thought of maybe should I do this, you should probably have a partner. And trying to do things in pairs and have someone there for not only to help you, be able to complete the project, but if something does go wrong that they can help get you out of this situation and be able to call an ambulance or get you to the hospital if needed.

Host: How about with summer? And the 4th of July approaching that often brings some of its own pitfalls, of course. Dr. The, what should parents be especially mindful of so their kids can be safe during the holiday season in the warm weather?

Tama The, MD: The 4th of July, is my least favorite working day of the entire year. You're talking about it, it's, it's literally the Super Bowl of preventable injuries. I think my advice is truly if you are already worried about the 4th of July, I could give you a hundred stories about why you should be, if you're not worried about it, then I don't think I'm going to change your opinions. I would say literally all of the horror stories that you see are happening in your hometown, they're happening next door. People are shooting fireworks off next door, and then a mortar shell lands in somebody's lap. And then, you know, I mean, it happens all the time. The sheer number of things that can go wrong is so extraordinary, that I would recommend being very, very cautious, especially on the 4th of July, whatever that means to you.

Host: Well, I mean, speaking of which, you guys may recall that on the 4th of July, not too many years ago, Jason Pierre Paul, the NFL player, he blew off part of his hand handling fireworks improperly. So it can happen even to adults, can't it Dr. Davidson?

Blake Davidson, MD: For sure. And I think that's like one of the, one of the biggest things is people want to hold Roman candles with their hands or they have what they believe to be smoke bombs. And the smoke bomb is actually, one of those little M 80 firecrackers that will blow up. And I, we see that very, very often. I think the other thing to think about, obviously not handling fireworks with your hands, which seems like a fairly wild concept to me. But also fire safety as well. So keeping buckets of water around. I know growing up we always had five gallon buckets of water, sitting next to everything that we had. Having water hoses out and trying to make sure that you're staying safe from that standpoint, should anything bad. Uh, I think the other thing that I see, that we don't necessarily think about if you are in an area that may be a little bit more enclosed or your downwind of the fireworks is from a asthma or reactive airway disease standpoint is that these can cause a pretty significant amount of respiratory issues for people. So, if you have some sort of airway disease, to be mindful of that and to put yourself in a good position not to be in all of the smoke.

Host: All right, well, great advice indeed. Of course, hopefully the key is that those joining us and beyond will heed your warnings. Folks, we trust you are now more familiar with preventable ER injuries. Doctors The and Davidson. Thanks so much again.

Tama The, MD: Thanks so much time.

Blake Davidson, MD: Us.

Host: And for more information, please do visit UK healthcare.com. Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social media. I'm Joey Wahler, and thanks again for being part of UK HealthCast, a podcast from UK Health.