Trampolines are a popular feature found in many backyards. Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Orthopedic Surgeon Lt. Col. Roxanne Wallace has treated a number of patients injured from trampoline play and shares best practices for families in order to help prevent trampoline-related injuries.
Transcript
Trampolines are a popular recreational activity for children stuck at home. Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Chief of Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel Roxanne Wallace, encourages families to practice safe practices.
There’s about 286,000 trampoline injuries per year in the United States. About 100,000 of those result in emergency room visits. If parents do choose to have a trampoline at home, a few ground rules can help out. Number one, it’s best if it can be at ground level. It’s also best if the child is six years or older. Their growth plates in the younger children can’t resist the forces that a trampoline creates. It’s also best if it’s only one child at a time that is adult supervised on the trampoline. It’s also important that the child not perform any acrobatics. These are our highest injury-producing maneuvers on the trampoline.
Wallace says trampoline and other recreational injuries are avoidable.
Well, right now, obviously, we’re trying to avoid coming to the hospital at all. So if you can avoid those injury-prone things like motorized vehicles, motorized scooters, dirt bikes, that kind of thing, or things that might result in a fall from height, obviously that’ll help prevent an emergency room visit.
For Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, I’m Maria Yager.