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Maria Tague receives scholarship from Tunkhannock Business & Professional Women

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Tunkhannock Business & Professional Women present several donations

<p>My wife and I were visiting Kate, Andy and our granddaughters Rowan and Eve for a few days last week.</p><p>The highlights included Eve&#8217;s first handful of understandable English words, especially &#8220;cheese&#8221; every time someone holds a mobile phone anywhere near her since she&#8217;s sure they&#8217;re about to take her picture. She&#8217;s usually right.</p><p>Rowan is now a master &#8220;scooter driver.&#8221; You see, on the Northshore of Chicagoland three-wheeled, &#8220;microscooters&#8221; in bright colors with adjustable handles have sprouted up this spring like daffodils and crocuses. Rowan&#8217;s is purple, of course, and within a week she went from her first tentative &#8220;scoots&#8221; to flying around the neighborhood. In fact, her 18-month-old sister spontaneously held the hand holds, put one foot on the platform and pushed along for a foot or two as caught on Kate&#8217;s phone. &#8220;Cheese&#8221;</p><p>Although I&#8217;m certainly excited by the girls&#8217; budding physical prowess, what I&#8217;m REALLY proud of is Kate and Andy&#8217;s insistence that they wear helmets during these vehicular adventures.</p><p>You see, I&#8217;ve encountered too many horror stories during my surgical career that might have ended better had victims been wearing appropriate protective gear. Now that school&#8217;s out, and the weather beckons, the summer increase in traumatic injuries, especially those associated with motor-vehicle and bicycle incidents, has started</p><p>This week, my colleague Akram Alashari, M.D., gives us some perspective on this alarming trend. Dr. Alashari is a trauma surgeon at Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC) in Scranton. He specializes in acute surgical care, which encompasses emergency general surgery and surgical critical care.</p><p>&#8220;Over the past month or so, we&#8217;ve had a sharp rise in the number of patients injured on motorcycles, bicycles, ATVs and skateboards,&#8221; he said during a recent conversation.</p><p>Many of the injuries Dr. Alashari has seen have involved the head, and some have been severe.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s worst in patients who were not wearing a helmet,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Intensive care units throughout our region have managed patients with blunt head trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and bleeding of the brain. Some major injuries require emergency brain surgery to minimize the disabilities that may develop.</p><p>Patients range in age from young kids all the way to older adults, and the patient&#8217;s age and condition can affect the way head injuries are treated.</p><p>Older patients often present a variety of medical conditions and can be on blood thinners, which leads to challenges in managing their injuries, especially when bleeding is involved.</p><p>&#8220;In general, children are much more resilient after head injuries,&#8221; Alashari said. &#8220;They often fare much better in recovery and outcome.&#8221;</p><p>Motorcycle operators not wearing helmets tend to sustain more serious head trauma, and ATV drivers riding on uneven ground are more likely to be thrown from the vehicle or roll it and run the risk of being trapped beneath the ATV.</p><p>Riding in remote areas can cause another complication in the event of an accident: It can take emergency services longer to locate and reach a patient, increasing the time it takes to transport a patient to a facility that offers trauma and critical care.</p><p>&#8220;There can also be an element of drug use or alcohol intoxication,&#8221; Alashari added.</p><p>Driving any vehicle under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances is not only illegal but also dramatically increases an operator&#8217;s chances of losing control and compromising the safety of self and others.</p><p>Rib fractures are another leading injury associated with recreational-vehicle accidents, and trauma surgeons have established entire protocols around that injury. Pain management for multiple rib fractures now often involves blocking transmission of signals through nerves in the spine with long-acting anesthetic agents injected nearby.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re moving away from opioid-based medication,&#8221; Alashari said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll use lidocaine patches on the skin, lidocaine infusion, spinal blocks, anti-spasmodics and non-steroidals, and we&#8217;re finding patients don&#8217;t get as lethargic, and can better participate in their care. We&#8217;re treating pain effectively without having to rely so heavily on narcotics.&#8221;</p><p>We&#8217;re starting early to focus Rowan and Eve on safety while playing, but it&#8217;s never too late for all of us to use our heads &#8230; carefully!</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Alfred Casale</p><p>To Your Health</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>.Dr. Alfred Casale, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is associate chief medical officer for Geisinger and chair of the Geisinger Heart Institute. Readers may write to him via ae@www.timesleader.com. For a free heart risk assessment, visit geisinger.org/heartrisk.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Ride ALL bikes safely, please