Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury
May 14th, 2013 11:04 am ET -
Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
My grandmother lived with us when I was growing up, and I remember her being incredibly active in doing things around the house even as she approached her early 80s. This all changed one day when she slipped on a throw rug and fell, breaking her hip. We called an ambulance and went with her to the emergency department, where she was admitted to the hospital and later had surgery. Luckily, she did not have any complications from the surgery. Afterwards, she relied on a wheelchair to get around until she died 7 years later.
People may take for granted how easy it is for them to move around when they know every step and corner of their home. But that is not the case for many older adults, whose declining balance, coordination or vision may put them at significant risk of falling. The risk of falling increases with each decade of life. Injuries resulting from a fall, such as a hip fracture or head injury can affect an older adult’s health and take away their independence. Each year, one in every three adults age 65 or older falls, and more than 2 million are treated in emergency departments for injuries that result from falls.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Motor Vehicle Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury, Violence Prevention
April 1st, 2013 9:10 am ET -
Injuries and violence kill 180,000 people each year. Motor vehicle crashes, falls, homicides, and other types of injury events kill more people in the first half of life than any other cause — including cancer, HIV, or the flu. And they cost more than $406 billion in medical care and lost productivity each year. If you yourself have not been seriously impacted by injury or violence, you probably know someone who has.
But what does that mean for public health? Where do injuries and violence fit into the plan to help people be able to live their lives to the fullest potential?
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Motor Vehicle Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury, Violence Prevention
September 11th, 2012 9:04 am ET -
Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
I still vividly remember my days working at a trauma center, treating victims of violence and traumatic events and working with communities to help prevent violence and injuries from happening in the first place.
I can clearly recall the faces and voices of children who came to the emergency department with injuries, and can still see the reactions of the parents who were told that their child had died from injuries; injuries that could have been prevented.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Motor Vehicle Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury, Violence Prevention
September 5th, 2012 3:58 pm ET -
Guest Blogger: Wendy Holmes, MS
Back-to-school season seems to usher a school bus load of paper into our home. It starts with a cheerful postcard showing my child’s new teacher. Then comes the packet with the welcome letter, transportation form, lunch form, contact information form, medical information form, the Parent Teacher Association form, the…well, you get the idea.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety
July 31st, 2012 10:23 am ET -
Guest blogger: Julie Gilchrist, MD
Julie Gilchrist, MD
People who work in hospitals and emergency departments can tell you. Treating kids is a hard job—especially when a child comes in with a serious injury that could have been prevented. I still get sad remembering some of the cases I worked on as a doctor in Philadelphia—many of my stories don’t have happy endings.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Motor Vehicle Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury
June 13th, 2012 10:19 am ET -
We are excited to see how injury and violence professionals, students, and the general public can showcase what injury and violence prevention looks like in their own communities through the “Seeing My World through a Safer Lens” video contest. This challenge will award $500 per category (Student View, Injury and Violence Professional View, and General Public View) for the video that best reflects a prevention story about Violence Prevention, Home and Recreational Safety, Motor Vehicle Safety, or Traumatic Brain Injury.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety
May 22nd, 2012 11:12 am ET -
Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
Starting from the time when drawings on cave walls portrayed tales about human life, people have been using images to tell their stories. Even a simple image can quickly communicate thousands of details, increase understanding about a difficult topic, or help us comprehend the relevance of complex data.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety, Injury Response, Motor Vehicle Safety, Traumatic Brain Injury, Violence Prevention
January 23rd, 2012 4:29 pm ET -
Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
Please visit the CDC Injury Center 20th Anniversary web site for toolkits, talking points, and other resources to help us commemorate our 20 years, and to spread the word about injury and violence prevention.
I have many stories that I could tell about injuries and violence, from both my professional and personal lives. One of my nephews was diagnosed with depression when he was in high school. He was treated, eventually finished school, and graduated from college at the age of 25. He was accepted to law school, but tragically, he died by suicide shortly after receiving his acceptance letter. Working in trauma and emergency care for many years, I saw the impacts that deaths and injuries had on families like mine. These experiences compelled me to do something to prevent other families from suffering. Being at CDC where so many people are dedicated to preventing these kinds of tragedies gives me an opportunity to ensure that fewer families will experience such loss and disruption.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety
December 12th, 2011 10:57 am ET -
Guest blogger: Christopher M. Jones, PharmD, MPH, LCDR, U.S. Public Health Service
How big a problem is prescription drug overdose?
We see the country’s surging number of deaths involving prescription drugs as an epidemic. In 2008, the most recent year for which we have national figures, more than 36,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S., and more than 20,000 of these overdose deaths were from prescription drugs. We have seen this number steadily increase over the last decade.
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Categories: CDC Injury Center, Home & Recreational Safety
June 30th, 2011 8:00 am ET -
Dr. Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
As summer begins, you may be thinking of vacation plans—spending time with family and friends, visiting favorite vacation places, and exploring new locations and activities. Many of us can recall heading back to school in the fall and being faced with the inevitable report on “what I did on my summer vacation.” I’m not sure that this is still the norm, with near instantaneous communication about travel and other activities and places visited, but however you report your summer activities, we hope that your report will include happy memories. A key ingredient to a good vacation is staying safe, no matter what you do.
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