In this post I link to [after reviewing] Cervical Spine Injury and Submersion Injuries
BY DR SEAN M. FOX · PUBLISHED MARCH 16, 2012 · UPDATED JULY 4, 2013 from Pediatric EM Morsels. Here is Dr. Fox’s introduction to this topic:
I’m not sure if you have noticed, but the weather is starting to get a little warm. It almost makes you want to go swimming… and that brings to mind the second leading cause of accidental deaths in pediatric patients: submersion injuries. We’ve all, unfortunately, dealt with patients who have had submersion events: some mild and some quite severe. For those that present to you in the ED via EMS, I can almost guarantee that those patients all had one thing in common – they were boarded and collared. The question is, “do they need to be?” And the answer is, “Yes!” But that “yes” is specifically for the pre-hospital environment. Swimming pools and Life-Guards have protocols. Paramedics and First-Responders have protocols. These are for the benefit of the patient certainly, but then the real question is, “Do I have to keep the C-Collar on once the patient arrives in the ED?”
Note to myself: Just review Dr. Fox’s entire post. It is, like all of his posts, brief and chock full of awesome nuggets.
