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Hey guys, just wanted to take a minute to share a very difficult learning experience...hopefully it will help anyone with small children. If any of you own a treadmill, for God's sake, don't let your little children anywhere near it...even if you are there.
Last Wednesday while I was at work, my wife was walking on our treadmill. We have a 3 year old, 2 year old (2 on New Year's Eve) and a newborn. (I'm going to the doctor very soon....lol) The two children play in our basement while my wife walks on the treadmill in a side room in the basement. My 2 year old daughter walked into the small room where my wife was walking on the treadmill...she dropped a toy...it bounced off the floor under the treadmill...before my wife could stop her, my daughter reached under the treadmill. It burned her two middle fingers down to the bone. 3rd degree burns on both fingers. We took our daughter to the Cincinnati Shriner's Burn Unit (luckily for us, one of the best in the country)...they told us to bandage the burns last week, scheduled an appointment yesterday and skin graft surgery for tomorrow...we went for our scheduled appointment yesterday and, by the graces of God, the doctor didn't think skin graft surgery was necessary. He said she will have some pretty bad scarring on her fingers, but that the burns didn't seem to affect the functionality of her fingers....as a result, the skin graft surgery wasn't necessary. We have to take her in every couple of weeks so they can keep an eye on the healing process....we aren't out of the woods yet...but the doctor seemed optimistic that surgery wouldn't be necessary. He said he could have done the surgery, but it basically would have been more for cosmetic purposes and he said since the functionality of her fingers wasn't affected by the burns, it wasn't worth it to put such a young child through surgery.
The shocking thing I learned yesterday....the doctor said they get more children's burns from treadmills than anything else....he said they get a child treadmill burn victim once every 2 to 3 weeks!!! The burn unit in Cincy is actually putting together research on it because of the frequency in burns from treadmills. A lot of large cities don't have specialized children's burn units like Cincy...and the Shriner's Burn Unit gets all the treadmill burns referred to them in the greater Cincinnati area so they are seeing how much of a problem this really is....other cities send treadmill burns to hand specialists or plastic surgeons, so other cities don't have the data to see how dangerous treadmills are to small children.
If you own a treadmill and have or are going to have small children, please don't let them near it...if you know anyone that has a treadmill and children, please forward this info to them. Putting things into perspective, my little angel could have lost her fingers....it could have been a lot worse....at the same time, she is in a lot of pain (the healing process is painful with serious burns)....it sucks...I hate to see her in pain...but pain is a good thing. For the first week, she wasn't in any pain because the burns were so severe...now that her little fingers are healing, she is bleeding and her fingers hurt.
We are very lucky it wasn't much worse....but we've learned a very valuable lesson....DON'T LET YOUR CHILDREN NEAR YOUR TREADMILL.....EVER! The next time my wife gets on that treadmill (I'm surprised she hasn't told me to sell it or throw it away), the baby gates are going up and there will be no chance that the children even get in the room. Also, if you aren't using the treadmill, keep the damn thing unplugged so your children can't turn it on and hurt themselves.
Happy Holidays!
Last Wednesday while I was at work, my wife was walking on our treadmill. We have a 3 year old, 2 year old (2 on New Year's Eve) and a newborn. (I'm going to the doctor very soon....lol) The two children play in our basement while my wife walks on the treadmill in a side room in the basement. My 2 year old daughter walked into the small room where my wife was walking on the treadmill...she dropped a toy...it bounced off the floor under the treadmill...before my wife could stop her, my daughter reached under the treadmill. It burned her two middle fingers down to the bone. 3rd degree burns on both fingers. We took our daughter to the Cincinnati Shriner's Burn Unit (luckily for us, one of the best in the country)...they told us to bandage the burns last week, scheduled an appointment yesterday and skin graft surgery for tomorrow...we went for our scheduled appointment yesterday and, by the graces of God, the doctor didn't think skin graft surgery was necessary. He said she will have some pretty bad scarring on her fingers, but that the burns didn't seem to affect the functionality of her fingers....as a result, the skin graft surgery wasn't necessary. We have to take her in every couple of weeks so they can keep an eye on the healing process....we aren't out of the woods yet...but the doctor seemed optimistic that surgery wouldn't be necessary. He said he could have done the surgery, but it basically would have been more for cosmetic purposes and he said since the functionality of her fingers wasn't affected by the burns, it wasn't worth it to put such a young child through surgery.
The shocking thing I learned yesterday....the doctor said they get more children's burns from treadmills than anything else....he said they get a child treadmill burn victim once every 2 to 3 weeks!!! The burn unit in Cincy is actually putting together research on it because of the frequency in burns from treadmills. A lot of large cities don't have specialized children's burn units like Cincy...and the Shriner's Burn Unit gets all the treadmill burns referred to them in the greater Cincinnati area so they are seeing how much of a problem this really is....other cities send treadmill burns to hand specialists or plastic surgeons, so other cities don't have the data to see how dangerous treadmills are to small children.
If you own a treadmill and have or are going to have small children, please don't let them near it...if you know anyone that has a treadmill and children, please forward this info to them. Putting things into perspective, my little angel could have lost her fingers....it could have been a lot worse....at the same time, she is in a lot of pain (the healing process is painful with serious burns)....it sucks...I hate to see her in pain...but pain is a good thing. For the first week, she wasn't in any pain because the burns were so severe...now that her little fingers are healing, she is bleeding and her fingers hurt.
We are very lucky it wasn't much worse....but we've learned a very valuable lesson....DON'T LET YOUR CHILDREN NEAR YOUR TREADMILL.....EVER! The next time my wife gets on that treadmill (I'm surprised she hasn't told me to sell it or throw it away), the baby gates are going up and there will be no chance that the children even get in the room. Also, if you aren't using the treadmill, keep the damn thing unplugged so your children can't turn it on and hurt themselves.
Happy Holidays!
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