The British Hospital supports and promotes a campaign to prevent injuries with fireworks and explosives

According to its policy of continuous education and health prevention, the British Hospital joined to the non Unintentional Injuries Prevention Campaign Committee for the Prevention of the Uruguayan Society of Pediatrics (SUP), designed to prevent injuries from handling fireworks and explosives by children and adolescents. The SUP decided to carry out awareness and prevention campaign after the latest days of December 2014 and the first ones of the present year, where many cases of children severely injured were registered by the use of explosives in days of traditional Christmas time. A survey of the Pediatric Emergency Department of the School of Medicine of the University of the Republic, in the same time of the year 2012, found only minor injuries in children and adolescents, so we are facing a qualitative important change, said professor agda Dr. Patricia Dall'Orso, who as well as leading the initiative of the SUP is the supervisor of the British Hospital Pediatric Emergency. Dall'Orso explains that is about drawing the attention of the population about this change quickly registered and detected from the Academy. "By the end of 2014 and in the beginning of this year called the attention the registration of more children with serious injures because of the use of explosives in Christmas time" she said. "We're talking of serious injuries, more severe injuries, finger amputations, and aesthetic sequels, sequels of functional and psychological impact on children," said Dr. Patricia Dall'Orso. "The challenge is to avoid these incidents to repeat, so we are sharing with parents and the community several recommendations for the safety and responsible use of explosives and fireworks," he added. First of all, Dall'Orso reminded that there are high explosives, "super bombs" or "megapetardos" that "in any case should be handled by children", because "its maturational characteristics make children vulnerable, because they do not have adults´ ability to handle them and to follow the complex instructions of the products. " She also said that “if they do not follow these recommendations, for instance, the explosive can detonate in an unexpected time by the kid and therefore cause him /her serious injuries ".” These are explosives of great power that they must not handle," she reaffirmed. In case of smaller size explosives, the professional said that children should "always be under adult supervision" and she also mentioned a number of circumstances that must be observed in all cases, as avoiding detonating explosives near vehicles, trees or vegetation that can cause fire, she also mentioned the importance of having a source of water near, avoiding keeping fireworks in pockets, and not to relight an explosive that was already detonated or making it exploded from certain containers, such as bottles or cans. Thus, following the permanent health prevention policy, the British Hospital raises awareness and calls the attention to a usual problem of this time of the year. Watch video