Parents Ignore Trampoline Safety.
Trampoline accidents are increasing and parents are ignoring safety advice, according to doctors.
Doctors at Kingston Hospital in Surrey say they have seen a surge in the number of children they treat for accidents on a trampoline. Between May and September of last year they treated more than 130 children for fractures and cuts. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accident (ROSPA) says parents must follow the manufacturer’s advice.
Writing in the Emergency Medicine Journal, the doctors at Kingston say parents need greater awareness of the dangers.
More that half of the 131 children treated at the hospital’s emergency department last summer had no nets on their trampoline and no adult supervision.
‘Significant Injuries’
The commonest injury was a soft tissue sprain followed by fractures, head injury and cuts. Most had been playing on the trampoline with other people at the time of their accident.
Operations were carried out on 18 children and 28 were referred to a fracture or ear nose and throat clinic.
‘Follow up’
The Kingston doctors followed up 90% of the patients with a call and found that 115 had continued to use the trampoline after or, in some cases, during their recovery phase.
However, all 119 parents reported that their own attitude to supervision and allowing several children on at the same time had changed.
