Poor care leaves Humpty
shell-shocked
Rhymes put under medical scope
Head injuries plague characters
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
Humpty Dumpty might have been saved after his great fall — if he had received proper medical attention. Instead, all the king's horses and all the king's men who rushed to the scene appeared to lack basic emergency medical training and showed "a shocking lack of crowd control," according to a report today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In its annual "research of the holiday kind" issue, Dr. Sarah Shea and Sara Giles of Dalhousie University take a tongue-in-cheek look at the alarming number of head injuries incurred in nursery rhymes and the lack of medical follow-up. They include Mr. Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Hush-a-bye-Baby and the unfortunate Ten Little Monkeys, to start. "No single category appears to have been spared injury," they write in "Head Injuries in Nursery Rhymes: Evidence of a Dangerous Subtext in Children's Literature." "Babies, teenagers, old men, primates, nongendered, nondescript characters — everyone suffered." Giles, a third-year medical student from Toronto, calls the medical treatment in nursery rhymes "a potential pandemic waiting to happen. We have to keep track of these things. "In fact, I think we should start manufacturing helmets to protect nursery rhymes," she said in an interview. In the report, Giles and Shea speculate that the infant in "Hush-a-Bye-Baby" must have sustained great trauma when the bough broke but no one sought medical attention. "But why was the infant in the tree in the first place?" they ask. "Child Protective Services should have been called to interrogate the child's guardian, who was obviously failing to provide a safe environment." As for the 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed, did they acquire a serious head or spinal injury when they fell off? Is that why none of them are left jumping at the end of the rhyme? While Mama did the right thing by calling the doctor, "it is clear that no examination of the injured monkeys was conducted," they say. The authors save their worst criticism for Jack and Jill, two young victims whose injuries aren't even properly described. "Does a broken `crown' refer to a skull fracture?" the report questions. "The use of this inexact term reminds readers that colloquial expressions can detract from a patient's future care and that appropriate medical terminology should be used whenever possible." The authors conclude the rhymes raise several important issues: the need to seek a medical opinion, the need for clarity about the events that led to the injury, and the need to use more precise medical terminology. To try to change this "sad situation," they wrote their own "medically sound" nursery rhyme: Little Johnny rode his bike, No helmet on his head. He took a fall and split his skull. His mother feared him dead. She rushed him to the ER, Where they checked his neuro signs. They noted a blown pupil And inserted IV lines They called the neurosurgeon, Who came in and drilled a burr, Now Johnny's fine, he rides his bike, But he's helmeted for sure.
Rhymes put under medical scope
Head injuries plague characters
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
Humpty Dumpty might have been saved after his great fall — if he had received proper medical attention. Instead, all the king's horses and all the king's men who rushed to the scene appeared to lack basic emergency medical training and showed "a shocking lack of crowd control," according to a report today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In its annual "research of the holiday kind" issue, Dr. Sarah Shea and Sara Giles of Dalhousie University take a tongue-in-cheek look at the alarming number of head injuries incurred in nursery rhymes and the lack of medical follow-up. They include Mr. Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Hush-a-bye-Baby and the unfortunate Ten Little Monkeys, to start. "No single category appears to have been spared injury," they write in "Head Injuries in Nursery Rhymes: Evidence of a Dangerous Subtext in Children's Literature." "Babies, teenagers, old men, primates, nongendered, nondescript characters — everyone suffered." Giles, a third-year medical student from Toronto, calls the medical treatment in nursery rhymes "a potential pandemic waiting to happen. We have to keep track of these things. "In fact, I think we should start manufacturing helmets to protect nursery rhymes," she said in an interview. In the report, Giles and Shea speculate that the infant in "Hush-a-Bye-Baby" must have sustained great trauma when the bough broke but no one sought medical attention. "But why was the infant in the tree in the first place?" they ask. "Child Protective Services should have been called to interrogate the child's guardian, who was obviously failing to provide a safe environment." As for the 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed, did they acquire a serious head or spinal injury when they fell off? Is that why none of them are left jumping at the end of the rhyme? While Mama did the right thing by calling the doctor, "it is clear that no examination of the injured monkeys was conducted," they say. The authors save their worst criticism for Jack and Jill, two young victims whose injuries aren't even properly described. "Does a broken `crown' refer to a skull fracture?" the report questions. "The use of this inexact term reminds readers that colloquial expressions can detract from a patient's future care and that appropriate medical terminology should be used whenever possible." The authors conclude the rhymes raise several important issues: the need to seek a medical opinion, the need for clarity about the events that led to the injury, and the need to use more precise medical terminology. To try to change this "sad situation," they wrote their own "medically sound" nursery rhyme: Little Johnny rode his bike, No helmet on his head. He took a fall and split his skull. His mother feared him dead. She rushed him to the ER, Where they checked his neuro signs. They noted a blown pupil And inserted IV lines They called the neurosurgeon, Who came in and drilled a burr, Now Johnny's fine, he rides his bike, But he's helmeted for sure.
Charles Mims
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