There's a saying that primary care providers often invoke that goes something like, "When you're a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail." Usually this refers to a specialist colleague who sees everything only through the lenses of their specialty. A surgeon who thinks surgery is the answer to everything. A gastroenterologist who preaches that everyone needs a colonoscopy, etc.
As we get deeper into the outdoor recreation season I'm seeing more and more injuries from weekend warriors. Repeatedly it seems to be those all terrain vehicles, or quads, that are the culprit. Kids and adults ride them all around the woods that surround our small town for miles.
This past week, a fourteen year old girl rode her quad until her head ran into a steel sign. The sign penetrated through her helmet and hit her right orbit. When she presented for care in my office two days later she had scrapes and bruises around that right eye and she was exquisitely tender when I pressed on the area. I arranged for a semi-urgent CT scan and she fortunately had not fractured her orbit. If she had not been wearing her helmet I shudder to think where that sign would have ended up.
Perhaps it is only because I see the bad outcomes from quads, but these things just seem like death traps. My internal struggle is that I'm not sure if I'm right on here, or am I just basing this because I'm acting like the hammer. Perhaps the vast majority of people that ride never have an injury. I do know that from what I've seen so far, my kids won't be riding them any time soon.
As we get deeper into the outdoor recreation season I'm seeing more and more injuries from weekend warriors. Repeatedly it seems to be those all terrain vehicles, or quads, that are the culprit. Kids and adults ride them all around the woods that surround our small town for miles.
This past week, a fourteen year old girl rode her quad until her head ran into a steel sign. The sign penetrated through her helmet and hit her right orbit. When she presented for care in my office two days later she had scrapes and bruises around that right eye and she was exquisitely tender when I pressed on the area. I arranged for a semi-urgent CT scan and she fortunately had not fractured her orbit. If she had not been wearing her helmet I shudder to think where that sign would have ended up.
Perhaps it is only because I see the bad outcomes from quads, but these things just seem like death traps. My internal struggle is that I'm not sure if I'm right on here, or am I just basing this because I'm acting like the hammer. Perhaps the vast majority of people that ride never have an injury. I do know that from what I've seen so far, my kids won't be riding them any time soon.
The Country Doctor