Kameron Morgan, a soon-to-be Davenport 9th grader, broke his wrist last year on probably the worst day possible.
“It was the last day of school,” he says. “I was riding home on my bike and I turned, my tire hit a little pothole, and I fell over trying to catch myself and that caused it to break.”
“Of all days, of all timing,” his mom, Yolanda, adds.
In fact, doctors say it’s this time of year when injuries like Kameron’s happen the most.
“Summer is definitely busier than the rest of the year,” says Dr. Mike Pyevich with Quad City ORA Orthopedics. Dr. Pyevich is the only fellowship-trained Pediatric Orthopedist in the Quad Cities.
Kids like 9-year-old Aaron Ingram, who got a scooter for his birthday. Then…“We went for a ride in the evening and we ended up at Trinity Hospital that night for the broken arm and here the next day for a cast,” recalls his mom, Cindy.
Dr. Pyevich says anything with wheels are some of the most common ways to get hurt and one of the most common spots — playgrounds.
“You should make sure the playground equipment is age appropriate,” he says. “You shouldn’t have a 2-year-old on monkey bars.”
Parents say balancing being safe with being healthy can sometimes be a challenge.
“It’s understanding the limitations between allowing a kid to be a kid and trying to instill some of the safety precautions in events,” says Cindy.
“I’ll be kind of iffy with him riding his bike and stuff, but he just loves to ride his bike,” says Yolanda with a shrug.
But Dr. Pyevich says rest is just as important as activity when it comes to kids.
“It is different,” he says. “Kids, of course, are growing and so they have growth plates and an injury to a growth plate can be a much more devastating injury.”
Luckily for Aaron and Kameron, their bones healed in time for busy sports schedules, which included track, swimming, biking, and triathlons.
“I’ll just sit back and inhale, exhale,” laughs Yolanda. “That’s about all I can do.”
Dr. Pyevich says the other top injury causer behind playground equipment and bicycles is trampolines. He says if you don’t have to have one – don’t get one. Trampoline injuries make up 92,000 pediatric E.R. visits every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
*Let’s Move QC is a new segment on WQAD. It’s all about being the best version of you by introducing viewers to real people in the Quad Cities who are doing just that, with a little extra help from the surgeons at ORA Orthopedics. The stories air the last Monday of every month during News 8 at 5 p.m.
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