Plastic surgeons are warning the public that children and toddlers with finger injuries caused by closing doors can end up with lifelong problems, reports BBC.
According to the British Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (BAPRAS), some of the injuries have the potential to lead to amputation as well as chronic, long-term pain. Furthermore, in some instances, trapping a finger as a child can result in future migraines, depression, or even amputation later on in life.
MSN noted that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimates that 30,000 children a year trap their fingers in doors at home, school, nursery, or in shops or cars. More than two million children under the age of 15 have accidents in and around the home every year that require emergency medical care. The most common hand injury seen by plastic and reconstructive surgeons is evidently fingertip injuries, with toddlers (namely boys under the age of 4) being the most at risk.
“Figures from just one London hospital reveal that last year door-crushing accidents resulted in 630 finger injury operations–40 percent of these were pediatric cases,” RoSPA explains.
The top three leading causes of these injuries are heavy self-shutting fire doors, car doors and hinges.
BAPRAS urges parents to use safety catches and door-stoppers to prevent children getting their fingers or hands crushed. The organization also recommends fitting hinge protectors on their doors. Putting these small C-shaped devices made of foam or rubber over doors prevents them from slamming, thus protecting fragile little hands from becoming injured. However, they are not the best suited for fire doors because they ultimately prevent the door from closing.
BAPRAS spokeswoman Anna De Leo, who is also a surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, commented on the matter:
“It’s easy to underestimate how important your hands are to doing everyday tasks. Injuries to fingers and hands mean tying your shoe laces, typing, holding a mobile phone or eating become a lot more challenging. And this is nothing compared to the impact of a finger amputation. The injuries are so serious that the patient would need to undergo a clinic appointment, an X-ray, day surgery, a follow-up nurse appointment and possibly physiotherapy. Fingertip injury alone can result in 20 percent loss of hand strength and can prevent people from pursuing their chosen career.”
De Leo also points out that while people may joke about fingertip injuries, the lifelong impacts are nothing to take lightly.
Aside from finger injuries, “the most severe accidents that occur within the home are falling and burns, which tend to happen on the stairs and in the kitchen.”
Some who have suffered these injuries in childhood share their own personal accounts with BBC.
One occurrence happened in the 1960s to a girl named Jane. Her older brother was asked to “lay the table.” Jane recalled, “When he tried to extend the gate leg table, the tip of my right-hand ring finger was severed. Mom picked up the tip and I went to the hospital. Apparently, I had nine stitches but it didn’t reattach so now I no longer have a tip on that finger.”
Another story came from Colin, who as a toddler pulled himself up using the door frame while his friend tried to close the door. He remembered, “The door wouldn’t close (because my thumb was in the way) so my friend kept on pushing the door. It took my Mum a while to work out where I was making all the noise from.” Apparently, the doctors believed that they should amputate the top half of his thumb, but his parents persuaded them not to. He now has a misshapen, but still functional thumb. He mentioned, “People only notice it’s misshapen if I point it out, which I very rarely do.”
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