Fireworkssafety.mp4
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00:00Hey guys, it's Meltdown from 101 WRIF The Rip, and I'm here with my friend Dr. Kurt Stankovic.
00:09He's the ER Medical Director at the Children's Hospital in Michigan. We're here today to talk
00:13about fireworks safety. Of course, coming up on the 4th of July, all sorts of things happening
00:18as far as fireworks safety is concerned. And what kind of stuff do you guys see in the ER?
00:22So we see lots of burns related to fireworks injuries, particularly around the weeks around
00:28the 4th of July. Yeah, obviously. Now, some people think like these sparklers and stuff,
00:32the kids running around with sparklers, and that's all great and dandy, which it probably
00:35is, but you see a lot of those burns as well. We see plenty of injuries related to sparklers,
00:40primarily in the younger children who sometimes touch the wrong end or touch each other with
00:45the sparklers. Yeah, playing tag at night with sparklers probably isn't such a great idea.
00:50Right. Now, other things like bottle rockets, I mean, even like M80s and stuff like that,
00:55you must see all sorts of stuff coming through the DMC with injuries to those.
00:59Yeah, we absolutely see blast injuries related to fireworks and the more explosive types of fireworks.
01:06But I'd say three-quarters of the injuries we see are related to burns.
01:13Now, what kind of suggestions do you have for parents with little kids? There's got to be just
01:18a boatload of suggestions you might have as far as what they can do to make their 4th edge liner,
01:24their fireworks safety, a little bit safer. So the safest thing is obviously to attend a
01:29fireworks show that's commercialized. The children, we're part of the audience there,
01:34and there's a lot of quality and safety controls there. But if you decide to set off fireworks on your
01:40private property, sure, there are certain things you can do. You definitely want the children away
01:45from the person lighting fireworks. You want to only light one firework at a time. It's a good idea
01:52to have a bucket nearby so you can pour water on a firework or someone if they happen to get burned.
01:58I like to, I think it's a good idea to have a hose handy as well.
02:02Yeah, I'll tell you what, going to see fireworks, I mean, a professionally done firework job is
02:07obviously really cool and it's probably safer than you can, anything you do at home.
02:11Absolutely agree.
02:12Yeah. And what other kind of things, suggestions, let's say, for example, kids do get burned,
02:16now what do you suggest they do?
02:17So the first thing to do if you have a burn is to irrigate it. So you want to pour some water on it.
02:24Tap water is fine.
02:25Now, sometimes you get burned like that and the water doesn't do much. I mean, is there anything else you can put on it?
02:30You can. You can use Silvadene or Bacitracin, but a good idea is to get seen by a medical professional.
02:37And of course they can bring in, you know, the kids anywhere to the DMC Children's Hospital in Michigan or anywhere.
02:43Absolutely. You could bring them to any emergency department.
02:46Yeah. And do you like particularly, do you think urgent care is a good idea at this point?
02:51I think pediatric burns can be tricky and it's a good idea to have an expert see that type of patient.
02:57What is the difference like between, I don't know, a general emergency department and a pediatric emergency department?
03:04So another one of the differences is we have specialized care and we have a specialized burn unit in our hospital.
03:11We are one of the top three busiest emergency departments in the United States and we're one of the busiest burn centers as well.
03:18In our emergency department, if a patient comes in with a burn, we have this rapid protocol where we provide care
03:25and get them upstairs to our burn unit within 60 minutes where we can provide high quality of care.
03:31It's got to be painful when you see not only a child come in, but maybe something their parent could have done to prevent them from having to visit the ER.
03:39Absolutely. And often injuries can be prevented.
03:44Well, doctor, like you were saying, a lot of people come through your burn center.
03:48Let's hope that the number is way down this year as far as fireworks safety is concerned.
03:52Absolutely. I hope that we provide a safer environment for our children and don't let them play with fireworks.