Clinic to skiers: Please be careful
Bless you
In order to relieve the clinics during the Corona crisis, the Clinic Director for Orthopedics and Traumatology at the Meduni Innsbruck, Rohit Arora, asked winter sports enthusiasts to be cautious. “Skiing, yes, but in a controlled manner and with less willingness to take risks,” he said as a motto.
“As soon as the ski lifts open, we notice that at the clinic,” he reported in a broadcast on Monday. At the moment, however, three of eight full operating theaters are blocked. “The idea behind this is that the nursing staff WILL be needed on other wards. For us, this means that we have to postpone planned interventions, ”reported Arora. Emergencies would of course be taken care of, including those who “are in tremendous pain or have surgery,” he said.
“Our criterion is whether a patient might need an intensive care place after an operation or not”. You also need a certain quota for emergencies – such as a serious traffic accident.
Many accidents due to fatigue
In the case of skiing accidents, it was observed that they usually happen at lunchtime and in the late afternoon. “The ability to concentrate decreases, tiredness increases,” he said, describing the main factors. For skiers who have a prosthesis, “I really want to recommend that you only go skiing if you feel very safe and avoid icy slopes,” says Arora. “These people have to be treated repeatedly in the intensive care unit,” he said.
Fewer ski injuries, more sledding accidents
In the previous year there were “significantly fewer ski injuries” after fewer tourists were in the country. 48 percent fewer ski injuries were treated compared to the previous year, but 38 percent more tobogganing accidents, especially with lower leg and ankle injuries and many cuts, ”said Arora.
In 2020 the number of injured ski tourers increased. “The lifts were only open from December 24th, when a lot of people started touring.”