Healthier Hawaii: How to prevent summer season injuries

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Summer is just around the corner, and it’s a busy time for families and emergency departments.

Dr. James Ham is the chief of emergency medicine for Hawai’i Pacific Health Medical Group. He’s also an emergency department physician at Straub Benioff Medical Center.

During the summer months, there are usually a lot of slips and falls, especially for kupuna.

Those falls can result in a rolled ankle, sometimes a sprained knee, a hip fracture, something in the wrist or the arm, and sometimes even some head injuries.

Dr. James Ham said you should visit the ER if you lose sensation in your fingertips or toes or if there is a deformity after a fall. You should also consider going to the ER if you’ve fallen while taking blood thinner medications.

“Other reasons. If someone’s vomiting, someone’s had like loss of consciousness, you know, they will remember the event and things like dizziness, or they’re not able to kind of stand or have balance issues as a real important reason to come in Emerg department,” Dr. James Ham said.

Doctors are also concerned about burns this summer.

“It’s with summer months being; people are out and about barbecuing more. We are kind of worried about burns, either blistering or things you want to look for. If it’s really painful, is over, like on your hand or kind of over-jointed. It’s definitely reasons come to emerge department.”

For more health and wellness tips and information, visit HealthierHawaii.org.

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