MSN.com Hurt on the Stairs A Child is Treated Every 6 Minutes in

Hurt on the stairs: A child is treated every 6 minutes in the U.S.
By JoNel Aleccia, NBC News
For weeks after the accident, Candice
Johnson couldn’t sleep. Over and over,
she kept reliving the moment last October
when she dropped her 9-month-old
daughter down a flight of stairs in their
Pennsylvania home. “I kept seeing us falling,” she said. “I was
carrying her down the steps and my flipflop broke.”
Johnson slipped and Annika flew out of
her mother’s arms, striking her head.
Doctors at a trauma center diagnosed a
skull fracture and bleeding on her brain.
Five months later, the child has recovered,
but for Johnson, taking the stairs will
never be the same.
Courtesy Candice Johnson Candice Johnson, 34, of Sinking Spring, Pa., cradles daughter Annika last November, about a month after the child suffered a skull fracture when Johnson fell carrying her down the stairs. It was a busy morning trying to get Liliana, 6, off to school. “It was an accident, but it’s hard,” said
Johnson, 34, of Sinking Spring, Pa. “You can’t help but blaming yourself.”
That may be true, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. New research shows that a child younger than 5 is
treated for a stair-related injury every six minutes in a U.S. emergency department, on average, and being
carried on the stairs accounts for nearly a quarter of stair injuries in children younger than 1.
“We were surprised by the numbers,” said Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the center for injury research and
policy for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “It sends a wake-up call to all of us.”
In the first nationally representative study of stair injuries in young kids, Smith and his colleagues found that
nearly 932,000 children younger than 5 were hurt in stair accidents in the U.S. in the decade from 1999 through
2008. On average, that’s more than 93,000 kids a year, or about 46.5 injuries for every 10,000 children under
age 5, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The good news is, the number of injuries each year fell during that period, dropping by 11.6 percent by 2008,
mostly because of a sharp decline in stair injuries tied to baby walkers, which once hurt some 25,000 children a
year.
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/12/10624654-hurt-on-the-stairs-a-child-is-treated-every-6-minutes-in-the-us?lite Voluntary safety standards enacted in the mid-1990s and wider awareness about the dangers of baby walkers
helped fuel that decline, cutting those injuries to about 1,300 a year, Smith said.
But the bad news is, nearly 90,000 kids still were hurt in stair accidents in 2008, largely because of preventable
factors linked to stairway design, consumer awareness and parental education.
'Incredibly awful'
Kate Canterbury, 36, of Columbia, Mo., blames the steep stairs
in a three-story condo in St. Paul, Minn., for her tumble three
years ago while carrying her twin daughters, Evie and Jane,
who were then 18 months old.
"It was incredibly awful because I knew in that split second
that I had to let one go or all of us would fall,"
Canterbury recalled.
It wasn't a matter of choice, but momentum. She dropped the
twin in her left arm, which was pointing downstairs.
The toddler fell while Canterbury and the other twin slid down
the steps.
Photo courtesy Kate Canterbury Kate Canterbury's twins, Evie and Jane, were 18 months old when she tripped while walking downstairs in a three-­‐story condo. "She immediately started crying, so I knew she was OK,"
Canterbury says. "I just felt so guilty for letting go of her."
She's not certain and doesn't want to say which of the twins, now 5, she actually dropped. "I don't want them
coming back at me, saying, 'You loved her more,'" Canterbury said with a laugh.
She's just relieved -- and feels lucky -- that no one was hurt.
About three-quarters of kids who were hurt on stairs suffered injuries to the head and neck, researchers found,
and nearly 3 percent of the children were hospitalized.
It’s not clear how many children may have died as a result of the injuries because the data obtained from the
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, or NEISS, don’t track deaths, Smith said.
Most of the harm, about 35 percent, came from soft-tissue injuries, followed by cuts, about 26 percent, and
closed-head injuries, about 20 percent. Fractures, dislocations and other injuries accounted for the rest, the study
showed.
Almost all of the injuries, nearly 95 percent, occurred at home, and about 88 percent of the injuries, or 817,000,
were caused by simple falls. Still, children jumping or riding toys downstairs accounted for 2.6 percent of
injuries, and another 2.7 percent were still hurt while using baby walkers.
“It’s a mixed message because mobile baby walkers are still sold in stores,” said Smith, noting that studies have
shown the walkers not only are dangerous, they also delay children’s progress in walking and learning. “It’s a
device that really has no redeeming value,” Smith added.
Particularly worrisome, he said, were the injuries to babies being carried on stairs. About 33,500 injuries, or a
quarter of those in kids younger than 1, occurred when the child was being carried on stairs by a parent or other
caretaker. Those youngsters were three times more likely to be hospitalized than kids injured in other ways.
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/12/10624654-hurt-on-the-stairs-a-child-is-treated-every-6-minutes-in-the-us?lite “We do live in a multi-tasking world,” Smith said. “If you have to take your child up or down the stairs, only
the child should be in your arms.”
That’s not the only precaution for avoiding stair accidents. Smith says any home in the U.S. where young
children live or visit should have sturdy, wall-mounted gates at the top and at least pressure-mounted gates at
the bottom of the flights.
“[Houses] should come built that way and then parents can take them off,” he said.
Stairs themselves should be constructed to minimize the chance of falling and banisters should allow people to
get a good grip in case they trip.
But the biggest boon would be increased awareness about how common -- and how dangerous -- stair accidents
can be, Smith said.
“I’ve worked for decades in hospital emergency departments and what I hear over and over again is: ‘I can’t
believe this happened to my child,’” he said.
In Candice Johnson’s case, she no longer wears shoes inside the house and she has a basket on the stairs for
carrying multiple items.
“When I’m walking down the steps, I take them one at a time,” she said. “I try not to be bringing other stuff
while I’m holding her.”
Most of all, though, Johnson says she tries to slow down. On the morning of the accident, she was rushing,
trying to get her older daughter, Liliana, 6, off to school.
“Be sure that you’re paying attention,” Johnson said. “If I had given myself a second to take a deep breath,
maybe I would have been able to catch myself.”
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