Tips To Have a Safe Summer In Cleveland

Summer is in full swing, and as the temperatures rise, Clevelanders head outside for hikes, beach trips and nights out at the bars.

But the surge of summer activities brings a spike in emergency room admissions, according to health officials. Every year, emergency physicians see an uptick in conditions such as heat-related illnesses, dehydration, and injuries from accidents and alcohol, said Dr. Baruch Fertel, director of operations at Cleveland Clinic’s emergency departments.

This year, the increase seems to be even greater due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

“I think people felt kind of cooped up. I think people just felt like they had to express themselves or just needed to get out,” Fertel said. “With the opening of the bars and things like that, we’re seeing a lot of folks intoxicated, and unfortunately, complications.”

Injuries from car accidents are on the rise, he said, with many of them the result of drinking and driving.

Dr. Casey Kohler, trauma and burn surgeon at MetroHealth, said it’s not just car accidents.

“We’ve had a lot of really severe head injuries from people starting to do different things like ATVs. We’ve had quite a few ATV accidents,” she said. “A lot of them have been younger people starting to hang out together in big groups again.”

The pandemic has also resulted in an increase in patients with respiratory illnesses showing up in the ER, Fertel said.

Now that COVID-19 health orders have expired, many people ditched mask-wearing. The masks, however, also kept other diseases from spreading, he said.

“I think now that people took off their masks, and relaxed themselves in the social distancing realm, we have seen an uptick in respiratory viruses. Even some that we would normally see in the winter, we saw a pretty big uptick recently,” Fertel said.

Fertel recommends drinking lots of water, which will also help prevent dehydration in the summertime. He has seen some cases of heatstroke and dehydration, but no more than usual this year. His biggest tip, he said, is to drink alcohol responsibly.

“It’s not a good thing to use to stay hydrated, because alcohol is actually a diuretic and can cause you to lose fluid,” he said.

Another summertime danger that people often forget about, Kohler added, is the temperature of the pavement on hot days. She has seen people get severe burns from a hot sidewalk.

“Especially if you were to drink or pass out; I’ve also had people who had fallen and can’t get up and get really severe contact burns from laying on the pavement for a while,” Kohler said.

She also sees patients getting serious burns from bonfires and grills each year. She warns people to not use accelerants and gas to light bonfires and recommends they check their grills for gas leaks.

Both Kohler and Fertel also caution about using fireworks, as they see severe fireworks-related injuries each year during the summer months.

“Fireworks are beautiful when used responsibly,” Fertel said. “Leave it to the professionals. Let them put on a good show.”