SLIP SLIDING AWAY: ICE BRINGS ABOUT INJURIES FROM FALLS

St. Francis Medical Center groundsworker David Coleman threw ice melter on ice near the hospital sidewalks.

This is bad weather for getting outside.

With sidewalks, streets, driveways and parking lots turning into skating rinks overnight, Pat Pennington, nurse manager for Southeast Missouri Hospital's emergency services, said 50 percent of the patients brought in to the hospital the past three days are there because they slipped and fell.

"We've seen all ages," Pennington said. "We're seeing sprains of both the wrists and ankles. We're seeing lacerations to the head, primarily from falling and striking it. We've seen broken wrists, broken ankles, broken legs. And some hypothermia from falling and lying before they were found."

The wrist injuries come about as people try to stop themselves from hitting the ground. The ankle injuries are happening as the ice turns their ankles in and the body's weight comes down on it.

"The odds of falling and becoming injured during icy times are much greater," Pennington said. "Certainly the elderly are more apt to slip and fall and their bones are more apt to break.

"Many of the people we saw were younger and did not realize when they first went outside how slick it was."

Pennington said the best way to avoid these injuries is to stay inside.

"We've had them sliding off the front porch," she said. "They've been going out the door to get newspapers to just trying to get their mail to playing outside. Just about any reason a person would need to get outside we've seen them injured from their falls."

"For people who have to be out, some sort of footwear that provides good traction is essential," she said.

Kevin Zink, a salesman for Chrisman Outfitter in Cape Girardeau, said knobby, rubber-soled shoes are the best for getting around in icy conditions.

"The more rugged the sole the more traction you're going to get," Zink said. "Loafers or anything with a hard leather sole is not going anywhere. The softer the sole the more it's going to contour to the ground and give you a little more traction, too."

Spiked shoes, even something like golf shoes, would probably provide the best traction on ice, he said, but they're not practical for everyday wear. Zink recommends hiking boots.

"I don't know if they would make a shoe that would just be for walking on ice," Zink said. "To get that specific it would mean something like spikes that once you got off the ice it wouldn't be practical.

"You've got to find a blend."

Other dangers during this time are frostbite and hypothermia.

Frostbite comes about when an extremity is exposed to cold air for long lengths of time. It damages the cells and can cause blistering and infection. Hypothermia is excessive loss of body heat.

If someone has to venture out into the cold, they have to stay dry as well as warm.