Trauma Prevention
As part of our community outreach, the Trauma Services Injury Prevention Education Program offers education on multiple of subjects related to injury prevention.
This education is provided to encompass virtually any age group and can be tailored to a school or organization's specific needs. Our emphasis is to generate preventable injury awareness and promote the health of the individuals living in our region.
How to Prevent Trauma
The greatest number of trauma patients is represented by those between the ages of 13 and 25. Nationwide, accidental injuries make up the leading cause of death for children 14 and under. Nearly 14 million children each year suffer a traumatic injury serious enough to require medical attention. Many of those incidents happen at home—often during the summertime and evening hours when children are not being supervised.
Our mission at Carilion Clinic is to promote injury prevention, education and research to help decrease this number in the future. We strongly believe that many traumatic injuries can be avoided if common sense safety precautions are taught and used.
Firearm Safety
Many U.S. homes—nearly 40 percent—have some sort of firearm within them. About ¾ of these are hunting rifles, while the rest are handguns.
It is often hard for an adult to distinguish between a real gun and a toy gun, and it is even harder for children. At the same time, TV and video games have desensitized many children to the lethal consequences of firearms.
The only way to completely remove the threat of firearm accidents is to remove all firearms from your home, however there are other steps you can take to greatly minimize the risk to you and your children:
- Always store firearms locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition
- Educate children that if they see a firearm (at home or elsewhere) they should not touch the firearm and should immediately tell an adult
- Make sure neighbors, family members and friends follow the same safety rules at their homes
- All firearms should be equipped with safety devices and stored in a locked cabinet
Sports Injury Prevention Tips
While many children will experience a minor sprain during the course of their athletic careers, there are also more serious consequences that can result from carelessness or recklessness in sports—including serious fractures and even paralysis. Some important guidelines to follow include:
- Wearing all appropriate protective gear/equipment for your particular sport including helmets, pads, shoes, gloves, neck rolls, sunglasses, etc.
- Understanding and following the rules for your sport
- Warm up slowly and stretch before your event
- Use proper sports techniques, especially to help avoid repetitive motion injuries
- Train and cross-train for your sport to be prepared physically
- Listen to your body and stop if you are in pain
Motor Vehicle Safety
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, thousands of children are killed or injured each year as a result of automobile accidents. Using the proper restrain system for your children will greatly increase their chances of avoiding serious injury in the event of a car accident.
One age group especially at risk is children aged 4 to 8 years old. Too large for traditional infant car seats, these young children are not large enough to fit in adult safety restraints. It is recommended that children continue to sit in a booster seat until they are 58 inches tall and weight 80 pounds—yet only a small percentage of families follow this advice.
For more information about choosing the right car seat for your child, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics website at http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm.
Other pediatric motor vehicle dangers include:
- Riding unrestrained in the cargo area of a pickup truck
- Riding unrestrained in the passenger seat of a car equipped with an airbag. (Inflating at speeds up to 200 mph, an airbag can seriously injure or kill an unrestrained child.
- Leaving a child unattended in a car
- Riding a motorcycle, ATV or dirt bike without a helmet
- Driving any motor vehicle while intoxicated
Biking/skateboarding Safety
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 400,000 children visit hospital emergency departments each year due to bicycle and skating injuries. Of these, sadly, about 300 are fatalities.
Despite this troubling number, only one in six children wear protective helmets while biking, skating or skateboarding—even though helmets have been proven to reduce the risk of a brain injury by 85 percent!
At Carilion Clinic, we strongly urge parents to educate their children on the importance of wearing a helmet during bike riding or skateboarding. In addition, protective elbow and kneepads can greatly reduce the risk of serious fractures to skateboarders.
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