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Simple safety measures can prevent window injuries |
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June 11,2012
SPRINGFIELD — It's not even summer, but already the hot weather and open windows have combined resulting in injuries from kids falling out of windows throughout the state and locally.
According to new data included in a report in the September 2011 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, an estimated 98,415 children and teens 5,180 per year from 1990 to 2008 were treated in emergency departments across the country for injuries related to falling out of windows. About 18 children die from their injuries and many others require a hospital stay. A child who falls 10 feet can suffer spinal cord injury, paralysis and fatal head injuries.
Window falls increase dramatically during the spring and summer months, but they can be prevented with adult supervision and a window guard device.
Safe Kids of Western Mass,. headquartered at Baystate Children's Hospital, is teaming up with trauma surgeons at Baystate Medical Center to stress the importance of window guards on all windows above the first floor, preferably guards equipped with an emergency release device in case of fire.
"A screen is not a safety device," Dr. Ronald Gross, chief, Trauma and Emergency Surgery Services, Baystate Medical Center, said. "It is designed to keep insects out, not to keep children in. Proper safety guards on windows save lives."
Window guards were shown to reduce fatal falls by up to 35 percent as part of a pilot program in New York City. While law in some states such as New York requires them, they are not required by law in Massachusetts, but are recommended in homes with children age six and under.
"In an apartment in a high-rise building, window guards should be considered essential safety equipment," Gross said.
As the area's only Level I Trauma Center, in addition to healing the sick and wounded, health care professionals in Trauma Services at Baystate Medical Center include education and prevention as part of their daily routine.
Among the facts: the majority of window fall-related deaths occur during the spring and summer months; children falling from windows are more likely to be male, under age 5 and playing unsupervised at the time of the fall; window falls tend to occur in large urban areas, low-income neighborhoods, and deteriorating and overcrowded housing; children living in apartment buildings have the highest number of window fall incidents five times more than children living in residences.
Still, no safety device can take the place of active adult supervision, Mandi Summers, co-coordinator, Safe Kids of Western Mass. headquartered at Baystate Children's Hospital, noted.
"Always keep an eye on kids around open windows. Toddlers have been known to fall out of windows open as little as five inches," she said.
Safe Kids of Western Mass. also reminds parents and caregivers:
Keep windows locked when they're closed, and keep furniture away from windows so kids can't climb to the ledge.
If you have double-hung windows the kind that can open down from the top as well as up from the bottom it is generally safer to open the top pane, but growing kids may have enough strength, dexterity and curiosity to open the bottom pane. Don't assume an unlocked window is childproof.
Never try to move a child who appears to be seriously injured after a fall call 911 and let trained medical personnel move the child with proper precautions. (Of course, if a child is not breathing and you are trained in CPR, as all parents should be, follow your CPR training.)
Tie the curtain pulls or blind cords out of reach kids have been strangled while playing with dangling cords. Install safety tassels on the ends of the curtain pulls, or cut the loops, so a child is less likely to get trapped.
Also, researchers in the study reported in Pediatrics suggested that prevention measures should include softening the landing surfaces below widows to help reduce the severity of injury if a fall does occur.
For more information about window safety, falls and childproofing, call Safe Kids of Western Mass. at 794-6510.
Safe Kids of Western Mass. works to prevent accidental childhood injury, the leading killer of children 14 and under. It is a member of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing accidental injury.
For more information on Baystate Children's Hospital, visit www.baystatehealth.org/bch then click on "Specialties & Services" for more information on Safe Kids.
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