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If your child were to suffer a burn, would…
Date Recorded
February 08, 2017 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
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Because they can reach temperatures up to 1,500…
Date Recorded
January 15, 2019 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
Kids Health Transcription
Interviewer: If you have a glass-fronted gas fireplace and a toddler or young child, what you're about to hear could save them a lifetime of pain and disability. That's coming up next on The Scope.
Announcer: Health information from experts supported by research. From University of Utah Health, this is thescoperadio.com.
Interviewer: Glass-fronted gas fireplaces are responsible for a lot of preventable burn injuries to toddlers and young children each year. And these burn injuries often require painful wound care and rehabilitation. The end result can be scarring that interferes with normal function, as well as psychological after effects that will be with them for the rest of their life.
Jordan Green's son was badly burned by a glass-front gas fireplace a few years ago, and he wanted to tell his story in hopes that it prevents another child from going through the same thing and, hopefully, you as a parent as well. So several years ago, your child was burned by a glass-front gas fireplace. What happened?
Jordan: We just moved back to Utah. We built a home and it was finished right before Thanksgiving. I was actually at work. My wife woke up one morning. It was cold outside. It might have been snowing. And she had the fireplace on, and the kid was playing on the floor with his toys, our son. And she just heard a loud, loud scream and ran to him. And he was . . . obviously, he had touched the glass on the fireplace.
I got a phone call. My wife was in a complete panic and she said Maddox had burned his hand and was going on and on and freaking out. And I said, "Get him to an urgent care." So she rushed him to urgent care as fast as possible and we kind of went from there.
Interviewer: Yeah, and ended up in the burn center because those fireplaces burn at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jordan: We just weren't aware. We just weren't aware.
Interviewer: Yeah. Do you have any idea how long his hand was in contact? Because what makes these burns worse is not only the temperature but these glass-fronted gas fireplaces, sometimes, they're so hot, it starts to melt the skin. And the child, not only doesn't realize that they're getting burned, but they can't get their hand off there.
Jordan: We don't know. My wife was, I think, doing dishes or something, but it was only maybe a couple of seconds. I mean, it was so fast. You look, it only takes one second. Your hand in there for one second . . .
Interviewer: That's all it takes, one second.
Jordan: Yeah, for it to burn like that.
Interviewer: And you have a picture and that was right after he got his hand burnt. And if you've ever burnt yourself before, you know how you get that white blister.
Jordan: Yeah.
Interviewer: His whole hand is practically like that.
Jordan: Well, and what you don't see, yeah, his whole hand is like that. But what you don't see is it's deep. It was burned so deep into his skin. I mean, well, what really hurt and was tough was all the treatments. You know, peeling back the skin, cleaning it, all the different treatments we had to do. I mean, it lasted almost two years, the process. It was crazy.
Interviewer: Two years?
Jordan: Yeah.
Interviewer: You had mentioned that coming up here for this interview that, you said, yeah, you know your way around pretty well because of all the times you had to come back. What did that process look like after the burn and then over that two-year period?
Jordan: It's crazy because your kid's so little and they're so precious and, I mean, he was not even a year old when it happened but it's like never-ending. I mean, it's two years of coming here. At first, we had to peel the dead skin away, clean it, and he would freak out. It was like the accident was happening over and over again every time we came. And that's how it was for the first several months, several treatments, is they're cleaning it out, painful for him. It's painful for his parents. We have to hold him down while they're cleaning it out. Yeah, it's an experience that you do not wish on your worst enemy, let alone your child.
Interviewer: So not only is it really painful when it happens, not only is the treatment excruciatingly painful, but the damage could last a lifetime. Yeah, I mean, to the extent that you will lose full mobility or usefulness of your hand.
Jordan: One of the scary things is . . . it may sound naÔve but you don't want your kid to grow up that has a dysfunctional hand or anything. You want him to grow up and be able to play baseball and throw a baseball and do all those normal things that we all grew up doing. And that was . . . another thing is we didn't know when we were out of the clear. Well, it could get infected. Well, we might have to go back in and they talked about if the scarring was severe enough that they would have to re-cut open the scars and relieve some of that intention.
And so for two years of all these check-ups, we never knew we're out in the clear. We still have to look and make sure that his function in his hand is properly working and things like that. And luckily, it's been great. We came up to the burn clinic and they did an amazing job.
Interviewer: But in your son's case, he's got full mobility of it, from what you've told me.
Jordan: He's got full mobility. He's got little scarring. And I know you saw the picture, it's hard to believe that that entire white deep-scarred palm, you know, you can see it now at 22 months, is barely recognized. I mean, you can barely see that anything happened to it. It looks really, really good. I mean, they . . .
Interviewer: Yeah. So what have you learned about preventing this type of injury since you've went to this experience? You said that you had no idea going in. The people you know have no idea. What have you learned since then?
Jordan: Well, I think it's awareness. I mean, if there's something as simple as a sticker on our glass of our fireplace just to say, "Hey, this gets to this temperature." We were just naÔve and unaware about it. And we're not the only ones because you were just saying every year, these little kids go to the University of Utah Burn Clinic for the same thing. I mean, it goes . . . it's a cycle.
Interviewer: Do you still use that fireplace?
Jordan: We still do use it.
Interviewer: How do you use it safely now?
Jordan: We put an iron guard around it that we fastened onto it. It's very sturdy and durable. Things are changing, obviously. The industry noticed that there was a problem and started making the adjustments, but you still see them. There are still all these homes built. And so we talked about it, but I just think awareness, specifically for that, would have saved us two years of heartache, but just drawing awareness and talking to people about it. Yeah.
Interviewer: Jordan, thank you very much for telling your story. I hope that maybe it prevents a few of these from happening because, unfortunately, sometimes people have to experience these things for other people to go, "Ha, this is a real threat. This is a real deal."
Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing is it was a lot of heartache for us, but, hopefully, we can prevent people from going through what we've been through.
Announcer: Have a question about a medical procedure? Want to learn more about a health condition? With over 2,000 interviews with our physicians and specialists, there's a pretty good chance you'll find you what you want to know. Check it out at thescoperadio.com.
updated: January 15, 2019
originally published: December 14, 2016 MetaDescription
Glass-front gas fireplaces are responsible for many preventable burn injuries to children each year. Learn safety precautions if you have a glass-front fireplace in your home.
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Hypothermia is when your body temperature gets…
Date Recorded
January 19, 2015 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness Transcription
Announcer: Medical news and research from the University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Host: Did you know that you could get hypothermia when it's 40 degrees outside? I'm with Dr. Troy Madsen, emergency room physician at the University of Utah Hospital. Let's talk about hypothermia. Is there a comparison to be drawn between heat exhaustion and heat stroke here?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Absolutely. Heat stroke is when the body temperature gets really high. Hypothermia is when it gets really low.
Host: Okay.
Dr. Troy Madsen: Neither of those is good. So think about it this way. Probably the easiest way to compare this is to your car. If your car's really hot, it doesn't run well. But then think about these cold mornings we're having now, going out there, trying to start your car up. You're just trying to get that engine going. It just starts to turn over a little bit, and once it gets going, it doesn't work well.
Host: Yeah. And then even you try to shift it into gear, the transmissions sloggy.
Dr. Troy Madsen: Exactly. It just does not work well. That's exactly what the body does. You know, your heart's kind of the engine of your body. If it's cold, it does not work well. You know, at high temperatures, same thing with your heart. Absolutely. There's definitely a comparison there.
Host: So 40 degrees, it could start happening. Is it normal at 40?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Not normal at 40. The big thing in the 40's is if you're in damp weather, if it's raining on you, you've got cold clothing, you can get hypothermia. So people who are outside maybe. You know, it's a little late in the year for people to be hunting, but maybe for outdoor activities, you may think, "Hey, its 40 degrees outside. I should be fine." But you could or your children could be experiencing hypothermia if you start to get cold or you just don't have the right clothing on.
Host: What temperature does it normally happen? When do you really need to start worrying about it?
Dr. Troy Madsen: This last winter, I saw several cases of it in the ER because we had some really cold days. But usually, once you get these temperatures down in the teens and the single digits at night, we see it a lot in people who are homeless, who are out on the streets, who don't have any place to go or may have not gotten into the place, into some of the resources that we have available. Or people who may be intoxicated, who may not be aware exactly what's going on, that their body temperature's dropping. That's where we really start to see some serious cases in the ER.
Host: So generally, it's not somebody that's doing some outdoor activities such as snow shoeing, skiing, that sort of thing?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Typically not. You know, I think most of us, we know when we're getting cold. It's not, like, you're walking out to your car in the morning and you get overcome suddenly by the cold. It's usually people who are in some other situation. They may be out skiing. They may be out in the back country where they just can't get to where it's warm soon enough. But for most of us, in our day-to-day activities, it's not a big issue.
Host: So frostbite's probably a little bit more predominant though? Because I can be out doing an activity and not have gloves on.
Dr. Troy Madsen: Right.
Host: I could be warm enough, but my extremities are not?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Exactly.
Host: Okay.
Dr. Troy Madsen: And that's one, too. You know, the big thing with skiing is usually these temperatures are in the single digits, and those can be some pretty cold days. When you're snow shoeing or hiking or whatever, when it kicks up, you've got part of your face exposed. You can get some frostbite on your face or on your nose. Certainly on your hands if you don't have the right equipment on. And when it gets cold like that, your body's going to pull blood from your hands, from your feet to your core to keep it warm. That's when you get some issues in your hands, some frostbite in your hands and fingers.
Host: So if my face gets frostbitten. What does that mean?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Basically, what it means is you got dead tissue there. You got tissue where there's just not enough blood supply there because the blood has been pulled away from it, and the temperatures have gotten so cold in that part of the body that the tissue actually dies. So, real cases of frostbite, that's dead tissue. Oftentimes, if it's severe enough, you know, we'll have cases of people who come in with frostbitten toes. I've seen cases, interestingly, of just people who are just out working, just out shoveling their snow. I've had a couple cases of that. They had some other medical problems that I think made things worse, but they've had amputations of some of their toes because of that, because the frostbite was so bad.
Host: So frostbite can cause things to have to be amputated?
Dr. Troy Madsen: It can. It can. You know, usually, it may cause some cosmetic issues. Certainly if it's on your face, that can be a problem. But in some cases, you actually have to have an amputation.
Host: What are the symptoms of either one of these that I need to watch out for? You know, because I've been really cold before.
Dr. Troy Madsen: Yeah.
Host: So cold that I think, "My toes are going to fall off."
Dr. Troy Madsen: Right.
Host: But was I really in danger?
Dr. Troy Madsen: I think the first one with hypothermia, you know, if you're shivering, that's a good sign. So you think the normal body temperature's 98.6. Once it starts to drop down around 97 or 96, you're going to start shivering. And that's just your body's way of trying to produce heat. You shiver. It produces heat. It tries to warm up the core. But the really concerning thing is if you stop shivering. That's when your body temperature gets less than 90 degrees, and that's where it becomes life threatening. Your heart just starts to do weird rhythms. It gets really slow. And certainly, if you're with someone and they just are not shivering and you're really cold, and they're just not shivering at all, and they are not really responding to you, those are signs of severe hypothermia.
Host: Is there anything that you could do for them at that point if you can't get them to help?
Dr. Troy Madsen: It's not everyone's ideal scenario or consideration, but if you have to, the best way to get someone warm is number one, make sure they're dry. Number two, if you've got a sleeping bag or something to insulate you, strip them down. Strip yourself down. Get your body heat next to them. That's the best way to warm them up.
Host: And that's about all you can do at that point?
Dr. Troy Madsen: That's about all you can do besides trying to get help. You know, obviously, if you can make a fire or whatever resources you have there, but that's going to be the quickest way to warm someone up.
Host: Any other thoughts?
Dr. Troy Madsen: Yeah. I think the number one thing is just preparation. Make sure you know where you're going. Know what the temperatures are. Make sure you're prepared for that, so that doesn't happen to you.
Host: And bundle up when you're shoveling your driveway.
Dr. Troy Madsen: Exactly. Stay bundled up.
Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is The Scope, the University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.
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