Doctors Warning Parents About Spike In Child Treadmill Burn Injuries
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Doctors at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center say they have seen an uptick in patients with burns from treadmills.
"There's been a spike in people doing home exercise, buying home exercise equipment, not going to gyms, not doing outdoor activities so I think that's sort of looking at our data seems like that may be contributing to this problem we're seeing," said Dr. Alejandro Garcia, a pediatric surgeon with the children's center.
Sarah Beckman went to the Hopkins center after her 3-year-old daughter Hazel got a burn from their treadmill in October.
"She managed to get her arm wedged in between the running treadmill and the physical therapy bolster," said Beckman.
Hazel's 6-year-old brother pulled her arm out, and she got a 4-inch friction burn.
"It was white, which I didn't expect, and there was very little blood," said her mother.
The Beckmans first took Hazel to an urgent care center and were told to put antibiotic ointment on the burn. But two days later, her injury was not getting any better. So the family made the three-hour drive from their home in State College, Pennsylvania to Hopkins.
Hazel was given a bandage to cover the burn, and doctors started monitoring her and working with her on physical therapy.
"She had sort of the deepest, full thickness, third-degree burn," said Dr. Garcia.
Parents should remove the safety key from the treadmill, that enables it to be turned on.
"I would like parents to understand that there are safety devices on these treadmills that they can pull out so they can't be turn in inadvertently," he said.
Parents can also unplug the treadmill when it is not use.
