Start of summer brings ‘trauma season’ for local hospitals

With the unofficial start to the summer season getting underway this weekend, local hospitals are bracing for the unfortunate consequences that come with everyone getting outside and taking advantage of the warmer weather.

“We call it ‘trauma season,'” says Anne Newcombe,
Clinical Director of Emergency Services at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

Newcombe says the hospital sees a significant increase in the number of people seeking treatment for injuries every year as the weather warms.

Among the most concerning of injuries is young children falling out of windows. While emergency responders and health care workers have conducted numerous public awareness campaigns, Newcombe says people don’t seem to be getting the message.

“We still see far too many injuries. We’re not really seeing a decrease in this despite all of our outreach,” she says.

Every year, local emergency rooms also see a significant increase in people falling off their ladders as they get out to clean the gutters and roof, Newcombe says. The Centers for Disease Control report unintentional falls are the leading cause of nonfatal injuries treated in hospital ER’s across all age groups except 15 to 24-year-olds.

“The sun comes out and people start emerging from their homes and it means sometimes we aren’t making the best choices,” she says.

Newcombe says swimming-related incidents also cause big problems for emergency responders as soon as the weather starts to warm up.

“We see people who are out swimming and they don’t realize how cold the water is and get into difficulty and we see too many drowning and near drowning cases,” she says.

Local emergency rooms also predictably see a big increase in motorcycle and bicycle-related injuries when the weather warms. But Newcombe says she’s not trying to rain on anybody’s parade. She just wants people to use some common sense and help minimize what are all too often preventable summer injuries.