The pediatric emergency department of Purpan hospital is alerting to the increase in serious domestic accidents in children since the start of confinement. In two months, 700 children had to be treated in hospital after defenestrations, falls, burns and wounds.
It is the hidden side of containment. Since March 17, accidents have multiplied at home. And according to the children’s hospital at Purpan hospital in Toulouse, they are becoming more and more serious. “Since the start of confinement, we observe that many children are taken care of following domestic accidents, they are more hospitalized and admitted to intensive care,” notes Isabelle Claudet, head of the pediatric emergency department and head of the children’s department at Purpan hospital.
Since March 17, 700 children have been hospitalized after domestic accidents. It is almost as much as last year at the same period but the manager of the service notices more and more serious cases.
Read also :
The mask at school: a trauma for children?
“In one month, we took care of 5 children following defenestrations, it’s unheard of, over the last three years we had only received 4”, remarks Isabelle Claudet. The 5 children survived “but some have suffered significant sequelae, several serious traumas including liver fractures,” she said. Why more defenestrations during confinement? “Parents are advised to ventilate to change the air during the epidemic, the windows are more open, it’s a higher risk”, answers Isabelle Claudet. “In addition, paradoxically, one would have thought that the confined parents would supervise their children more at home but that does not seem to be the case”, she adds.
Suspicions of family abuse
Younger people are more victims of these domestic accidents. “We mostly received children aged 2 to 5 years, this age group is particularly represented which is not really explained because all the children are however confined,” added the head of the service.
She and her team treated many wounds caused by knives, scissors or cutters, trauma or fractures following falls from a trampoline, a sofa, a chair or a bicycle, burns, sores and poisoning. “These serious cases required more hospital admissions and resuscitation than last year, we also see unusual fractures in these young children such as a fracture of the upper tibia in a 3-year-old child after a fall in trampoline while it is not recommended for children under 6 years “, specifies Isabelle Claudet.
Among the 700 children injured, medical teams suspect cases of family mistreatment. “It is difficult to assess how many, but there have been more since the start of confinement and we will see the physical and psychological effects after May 11,” worries the doctor.
–
