Emergency physician on common accidents: 'I no longer have this remedy at home'

We would prefer to stay as far away as possible, but some people still end up in the emergency room of the hospital. ER doctor Heleen Lameijer (37) tells Metro which common accidents and mishaps she sees regularly. But she also tells which of them are best prevented.

You'd rather never end up there: the emergency room. But still, more than a million people end up in this hospital department every year due to an accident, crash or other medical reason. It was previously reported that more and more cyclists end up in the ER.

ER doctor Heleen Lameijer works in the emergency department of the Frisius MC in Leeuwarden. In addition to her work as a doctor, she wrote about her experiences in the emergency department in her books Op de spoedeisende hulp (Op the emergency department ) and in June Hollen of staan ​​(Running or standing still) will be published. And via her platform Make Science Work she tries to share medical and scientific information in understandable language. But why did she ever want to work in the emergency department as a young doctor? "I wanted to make a difference on one of the worst days of someone's life. Every day is different with us. Sometimes it's busy with a lot of action, sometimes there's less action. It's an exciting profession."

Her books provide a glimpse into the ER floor. "They are about stories that take place there, but also the human aspect behind the patient and the doctor. When writing my first book, the corona crisis and, for example, my grandmother also played prominent roles. In the second book, I include my pregnancy and with it my own role as a 'patient'."

Lameijer works 28-hour shifts per week at Frisius MC. "We see around 30,000 patients in the emergency room each year. That varies per season. Summers are quieter and winter and flu seasons are busier."

The doctor sees quite a bit of suffering on a workday like that. She names a number of common accidents that she regularly sees in her department. "As for serious injuries, they are mostly car accidents, resuscitations or heart attacks."

Not all accidents fall under the heading of 'serious injury'. Some accidents and mishaps are lurking in a small corner. Lameijer lists a number of these types of common ER accidents:

“We see a lot of broken bones due to falls, for example. Especially wrist fractures or elderly people who break their hip in a bicycle accident.”

"I also often see accidents due to DIY. Especially now that the weather is nice, people enjoy doing DIY in the garden and then we regularly see hand injuries from a saw or other tool."

"I therefore recommend wearing protection when doing odd jobs. We still see metal or wood splinters in the eyes too often. Put on a pair of glasses when you are working with metal or wood."

“In addition, many people with burns end up at the emergency room. Because of hot water, an oven or children who have had hot tea poured over them.”

“The most serious are not accidents, but poisonings. Certainly in children. Often because they have accidentally ingested medication, cleaning or household products or other chemical substances.”

“What many people don’t know is that nail polish remover with acetone is very dangerous. I don’t have that in my house anymore since I had a daughter. I saw a child die during my work after drinking nail polish remover. If you ingest even a small amount, especially as a child, you can get all kinds of organ failure. For example, the respiratory organs can fail.”

“Storing chemicals in an old soda bottle is also dangerous. Many people do this to use them for painting or DIY, for example. The danger is that someone will take a sip of it because they think it contains soda. So don’t do that. Keep the normal packaging and put these types of substances high up in a cupboard.”

“We are also seeing more accidents involving e-bikes these days, including among children and young people. More and more young people are suffering injuries from falling off an e-bike. These electric bikes are fast, heavier, unwieldy and you should actually wear a helmet as a driver. If you fall, the impact is greater. We are also seeing this among young people. We are seeing more fractures, but also skull and brain injuries. And that is worrying, especially at a young age, because it can have an impact on the rest of your life.”

"You simply have to wear a helmet on an e-bike. Trauma surgeon Jeroen Poos has also been warning about this for some time. A helmet can make the difference between brain damage or not. It is not in our culture to wear a helmet , but an e-bike is different from a regular bike. We also wear a helmet on a racing bike, don't we?"

"We doctors often think it's a bad thing that we still set off fireworks ourselves. We see so many eye, hand and burn injuries around New Year's Eve. That makes me sad because it can be prevented. Especially with children, who we have to protect against it."

And then the ER doctor mentions two more things that she also thinks are important to know:

“You may cut or saw your finger off in an accident. In order to put the finger back on properly (this must be done quickly), you must keep the finger on ice. It is important that you do not put the finger in direct contact with ice, but put it in a gauze or bag and then keep it cold.”

"It is best to store a tooth in your mouth with saliva. If you do that, the tooth can be put back more often. Sometimes it is also said that a glass of milk is an option to store the tooth in. There is some truth in that, but ideally you store the tooth in your mouth."

In addition to her work as an ER doctor, Lameijer also set up an online resuscitation course . “A man who had collapsed in a pub due to cardiac arrest once came to the emergency room. But no one there knew how to resuscitate and the man died. I was left with the problem that a man in his early 40s could not be helped in a crowded pub. I know that not everyone takes such a resuscitation course, so I decided to set up one that you can follow online, via Instagram, website and app. It is my mission that every Dutch person can resuscitate.”

Lameijer has another piece of advice about resuscitation. “Doing something is better than nothing. People are afraid that they will do something wrong and break ribs, for example. But breaking a rib is better than someone dying. Dare to take that step, you can’t do anything wrong.”

And then Lameijer wants to say something about the waiting time at the emergency department. “Keep in mind that you may have to wait. The sicker someone is, the sooner he or she will be helped. Healthcare is under pressure. If you come to the emergency department with a relatively simple injury, no matter how serious it may be for you personally, you will probably have to wait. Realize that before you come to the emergency department. We weigh that up in the hospital based on the seriousness and threat of potential injury. Sometimes we are too busy and cannot always help everyone. Do you have to wait at the emergency department? Then you can assume that someone else needs priority.”

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