The Montreal Children’s Hospital launches a new Trauma website to help newborns, children and teens be active and play safe
Chris Higgins of the Montreal Canadiens helps unveil the website which focuses on trauma prevention and treatment of injuries
Each year at The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the McGill
University Health Centre 15,000 children are treated for traumatic
injuries. That’s over 41 infants, children or teenagers a day who
have been injured in a multitude of ways such as snowboarding,
skiing, tobogganing or playing hockey. Motor vehicle collisions
often result in lifelong consequences. The MCH also sees far too
many children injured by falling down stairs or off changing
tables, scalding hot water, or ingesting noxious chemicals.
This is why The Montreal Children’s Hospital Trauma Programs and
spokesperson Chris Higgins of The Montreal Canadians today unveiled
a brand new website () The bilingual site is
designed to provide visitors with up-to-date, timely, clear,
concise, practical, trustworthy and professional information on,
ideally, how to avoid being injured, but also how to treat common
injuries such as burns, ankle sprains, concussions, dental trauma
and others.
“In 2009 searching the web has become a common practice for many. We want to ensure the diffusion of timely credible information and share our Trauma expertise. This is why we’ve launched this new bilingual Quebec website,” says Debbie Friedman the Director of the MCH Trauma Programs. “We work hard on both fronts: providing tertiary level trauma care and injury prevention. Thanks to this website, we will have a much more efficient and effective way of reaching children, teens, parents, coaches, teachers and many of our partners in the Quebec and Canadian trauma network. The site is especially useful for geographical areas that are not easy to reach—possibly on a global scale. Community partners can then use our expertise to develop their own programs.”
“I am very proud to be associated with the Trauma Programs of
the Montreal Children’s Hospital and to be part of the launch of
this important website,” says Mr. Christopher Higgins. “I recently
hurt my shoulder playing hockey, and I know being hurt is no fun.
That is why this site is so valuable. It
provides parents and teens with some straightforward, easy to
understand information on how to have fun by staying active, but
also by staying safe.”
The web site also features a video with Mr. Higgins offering teens
some important advice on how to avoid traumatic injuries, and not
play through a trauma.
The easy to navigate site is divided in to seven categories:
Treating Injuries: designed to provide general information about
different types of trauma and the initial management until medical
help can be obtained. This section gives parents some practical
advice, but is not intended to be a substitute for proper medical
care. As a provincially designated Trauma Centre, the MCH treats
15,000 children and teens in our ER each year. Over 600 of these
patients sustain injuries that are serious, require hospitalization
and the interventions of our trauma experts.
Injury Prevention: It covers a plethora of information on burn and
fire safety, road safety, poisoning prevention, sports injuries and
holiday safety. It is designed to give visitors some common sense
tips on how to prevent a child from being injured. In Canada, each
year, 500,00 children (10% of the population aged 18 years and
under) injure themselves severely enough that they have to stop
their current activity and seek medical advice.
Infant and Toddlers 0-3: This special section features an
interactive virtual house and quiz that highlights some of the most
common injuries that take place in and around the house. The
virtual house was created in collaboration with the Fondation Lucie
et André Chagnon – and its new site Naitreetgrandinr.net. Each
year, the Montreal Children’s Hospital sees over 3700 children
under the age of four who have sustained traumatic injuries, the
majority of which are preventable.
For Teens: This section already includes a video with important
sports tips from Christopher Higgins, and other topics of interest
for teens such as drinking and driving, risky behavior and sports
and recreational activities.
There are also sections designed for Health Professionals to
provide them with up-to-date information on pediatric and
adolescent trauma including some of the protocols established by
The Montreal Children’s Hospital Trauma Programs. The section
Clinical Research will highlight the various initiatives and
collaborative work undertaken by the Programs. The About Trauma
section provides information about the different programs, history
accomplishments and how to refer children to our Trauma
Programs.
() was made possible
thanks to the generous donations made to The Montreal Children’s
Hospital Foundation. The site is 100% commercial free. It will be
updated regularly to make sure web users have all the latest
information and research on how to prevent and treat injuries.