Children cannot only be poisoned with cleaning products, but also with medicines that are within their reach, says Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital.
He also warns about the nicotine, which can be very toxic and may produce a seizure. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says the most frequent reasons that kids injure themselves at home are jumping on the bed and running around.
The expert explains most of the time children don’t lose consciousness after a fall. However, he advises being alert if the child behavior changes, the kid bleeds through the ears or the nose, loses consciousness or has a seizure.
Dr. Medina recommends examining kids in all of the cases of falls. If a child falls, he or she is not acting normal and has a persistent headache, Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, recommends visiting the physician.
After the fall, the expert advises getting some ice and putting pressure. But if the bump doesn’t improve and the child is not acting normal it is necessary to bring him or her to the emergency.
Dr. Medina also recommends using a helmet in some activities, because it protects children from getting an internal head injury. The best advice Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, can give parents is that they be aware of what their children are doing and, if It’s necessary help them quickly.
“Watch if your child of your teenager is moving out of the scene, not talking or disconnecting from his family,” he says.
The specialist also advises if the communication parent-son is not good, It’s urgent to look for help. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says to avoid teen drugs abuse it is important to be involved with your child when they are at home, and being involved in the decisions that they make, because the conversations and what they see at home prepare them for interactions with peer pressure.
“The surprising factor for a lot of us is the parents not being aware of what’s going on when it’s right there in front of them.” According to statistics, about ten people die from unintentional drowning and two are children aged 14 or younger. Also, drowning ranks fifth among the leading unintentional injury death in the US.
Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, affirms the physicians alert every summer about the pool and water safety because he considers Miami is a risk area.
He advises certifying in CPR because chest compression should be good enough for any common people. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says there are a lot of misconceptions about the use of vaccines, but it is important for the physicians to know what vaccines your children have, so they can know what possible diagnoses can be determined.
“Not too long ago, like three or four months ago, we saw a patient with whooping cough, we saw another patient with diseases that you wish had been prevented by the vaccine, like mumps,” he says. There are some signals that a child or adult is in danger of drowning, such as head low in the water, mouth at water level; eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus; hair over forehead or eyes and hyperventilating or gasping.
Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says there are some scales that they use in the emergency to determine if neurologically the patients are acting normal and that will give them a key point to start, but the most important thing is to get the medical history complete. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, explains when you have an exhaustion of heat the brain doesn’t function as normal. “The child starts to get a little disoriented and lose their balance, then suddenly they could have a seizure or pass out. If they come really on time, it won’t leave any damage to the kid,” he says.
Dr. Mario Zambrano, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Homestead Hospital, says other symptoms of heat exhaustion is when you child is red, breathing heavily, complaining of muscle aches. They need to hydrate themselves. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says the majority of driving accidents are preventable.
“Common sense is not so common. For example, why you should be wearing something in your ears if you are walking or you are going through a light on a bicycle? I think if we give a little bit more education I think people will hear it. At the beginning it was so hard that people would put seat belts on. However, with education and assisting and the law, people started to use them,” he points out. Earache is one of the very frequent reasons for seeing kids in the ER, affirms Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital.
The specialist also talks about fractures and back pain in kids and says it is more related to the stress of the back due to some sports activities or a fall.
He considers the most important thing is if there’s a neurological problem due to the fractures, because if it involves arms, legs or any other part of the body, that can be a problem. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, explains the brain of the adolescent is not completely mature and there are good and bad behaviors.
“In the adolescent, some parts of the brain, especially in the frontal areas, are willing to take risks, and in there they have tremendous amount of substances that make them take a risk,” he says and points out about sexual behavior there is not a good control over it, because the maturity is not there yet. If the belly pain is located next to the belly button or It’s more to the right side of it, It’s necessary for the physician to examine the kid in order to diagnose if It’s appendicitis or not.
Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital also says any pain in the stomach area should be checked by the doctor, because not always is appendicitis. In girl cases it could be an ovarian or intestinal problem. Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, says everything starts at home. “When you have kids you have to give them education and part of the education is the control over the exposure of different things that could be risky.”
He explains if you smoke at home, for example, and the kids look at you smoking that gives them the idea of smoking is tolerated by my parents. “If you look at the statistics, you see kids starting very early smoking with parents that are smokers. And the issue of drugs is the same thing.” The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention has issued a new recommendation about swimming in lakes, because of the presence of amoeba, a parasite that is able to get into the brain.
The CDC release an information to the physicians about the importance of early recognition, early detection and informing the CDC that they have a patient with this type of amoeba, because they have a medication that they are using and apparently is highly effective.
According to Dr. Francisco Medina, Director of Pediatric Emergency Services and Chief of Pediatrics at Homestead Hospital, the mortality rate goes close to 95%, so very few people survive to this amoeba. Dr. Mario Zambrano, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Homestead Hospital, says Florida receive a lot of tourists. “Some of them do get the infection abroad and some get it here, but it is important to educate physicians, as well as people, to recognize the virus,” he points out.
He says the symptoms of zika and other viruses are pretty similar: headache, joint pains, body ache. Those can be taken as a simple flu, but he recommends if there is a suspicion or you have traveled recently, you have to consider the zika virus as a possible diagnose. Dr. Mario Zambrano, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Homestead Hospital, says it is very challenging to put your child sunscreen in summer, because they just want to go out and play, but it is important to make it fun for them so they let you apply the sunscreen.
About the SPF number, he recommends it to be 15 or more. “The higher the SPF, the longer it lasts. Every two hours you have to get your children out of the water and reapply it,” he points out and also highlights it is good to avoid the Sun from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m., because it is the most harmful Sun. Get your child out of the water and take them to a safe spot; check to see if the child is breathing, if not, start CPR; and send someone to call for emergency medical help. These are some tips you should follow in a drowning emergency.
Dr. Mario Zambrano, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Homestead Hospital, says it is important to know how to do CPR. “It is easy to watch a video on Youtube of how to do CPR. I tell parents all the time, you take a few moments to look at Facebook, you can take a few minutes to watch a video, especially if you have small children,” he points out. Edward J. Hudak Jr., Chief of Police at the Coral Gables Police Department, says the more things they enter into the car the more distracted the driver is going to be. “Kids for the most part suffer from this phenomenon called FOMO (Fear of Missing out on Everything). And with the newness of driving, that FOMO type of attraction automatically deflects them.”
He also explains a secondary distraction from driving at speeds of 50 miles an hour can lead to catastrophic injuries. Edward J. Hudak Jr., Chief of Police at the Coral Gables Police Department, says adolescents need to focus on awareness. “Our kids believe that multitasking is something that’s easily done. When you’re driving you really shouldn’t multitask, your objective if you’re driving a car should be to get from one place to another.”
He also explains pedestrian accidents occur because of the distraction of somebody walking down the street, for example, with earphones in or having a conversation with somebody else, and they are not paying attention to the crosswalk. That can lead to an accident. Some of the misconducts of Florida teens are having sex before age 13, not eating vegetables, not going to school, not being physically active for at least a day per week, and watching more than 3 hours of TV daily.
Edward J. Hudak Jr., Chief of Police at the Coral Gables Police Department, says these teens are at disadvantage when they are dealing with real life. “When we give somebody a driver’s license at 16 years old and send them out, they have to be prepared to how to drive, but also how to cope with aggressive driving from somebody else, take responsibility for everybody else in the car.”
