Scooters are dangerous! How much more does this need to be said for people to understand. Or do people not think seriously about their lives, but simply want to move faster… Recently, doctors in Burgas literally fought for the life of a young man who had fallen from a scooter. Fortunately, the case ended successfully, but… How to solve the problem with scooters… Neurosurgeon Dr. Svetoslav Todorov, MD, Deputy Director of UMBAL Burgas AD, speaks to FACT.
- Dr. Todorov, a few days ago you fought for the life of a small child who fell from a scooter. And you succeeded - medicine won…
- That's right! Medicine won in yet another case of a scooter accident that led to a potentially life-threatening condition - severe head injury with a skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. But here too, I would like to note that the happy ending was thanks to a series of correct and adequate actions not only by medical specialists, but also by an eyewitness to the accident who provided assistance. This reminds me of the case from two years ago, when lightning struck a small child on the beach in Burgas and then his father applied first aid measures until the arrival at the University Hospital Burgas AD, which allowed the prepared medical teams to save the patient and discharge him fully recovered.
- Tell us in what condition the child was admitted and what happened next?
- The child was brought with a team from the Emergency Medical Care Center to the Multi-profile Emergency Department of the University Hospital Burgas AD, which is the only medical institution in the territory of the Municipality of Burgas where people under 18 years of age with neurosurgical pathology in a coma are treated and was hospitalized in the Resuscitation and Intensive Care Unit. After a control imaging study, it was determined that surgical intervention was necessary due to the cerebral hemorrhage. In the following days, the child was transferred to the Neurosurgery Department, where conservative treatment continued until his full recovery.
- What needs to happen for people to understand that scooters are a dangerous thing. Or does everyone lead them on with the idea that nothing will happen to him…
- I don't know what else the public needs to see and hear for this type of vehicle to be perceived as dangerous. Doctors, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the journalistic guild, especially during the warmer months of the year, share daily about the many accidents and instead of people reducing their use or at least making it correct, statistics show the opposite – accidents are becoming more frequent, and so are deaths.
In this, the last case, we have responsible parents who hid the scooter after the bans, who know that it can be dangerous, but the child took his father's scooter – he saw where he kept the keys and took them in a moment of inattention. Children at this age are truly unpredictable, a classic explanation of the saying "toy - crybaby". Even in a family where there is control, it can still happen.
- We fall from a scooter from a height of our own height, as they say, but even with minimal acceleration, assuming that we are moving slowly, what injuries does it lead to?
- The surface on which we fall is always a hard surface and there is no way to avoid injuries to the limbs. Head injuries are dangerous and life-threatening because, when the rider is not wearing a helmet, which is one of the most common reasons for this type of injury to occur in a fall, there are areas of the skull that, when affected, are more easily broken and create a prerequisite for intracranial hemorrhage.
- On a scooter, we stand upright, and our feet are on a small area. How does this affect?
- Again, negatively and with a greater risk of injuries in a fall, because there is no support for the body. But the previous two questions touch on the risk to the driver himself, and I would also like to draw attention to the risk to pedestrians when a careless driver of an individual electric vehicle is driving towards them or behind them at high speed - they often do not have time to react properly to pull over and are pushed, and, unfortunately, the most vulnerable in these cases are small children and the elderly.
- A ban on scooters has already been introduced, but do you think it is being followed?
- I have witnessed increased inspections by the Ministry of Interior authorities, but I cannot say with satisfaction that the new rules and recommendations are being followed.
- And the fines have increased, but people seem not to be impressed. Why is that?
- Because we have no self-awareness, because for some people life is a given and they have no commitment to taking care of it, which is a shame. It is a shame that with the lack of commitment to our own health and life, we sometimes endanger that of innocent people. This is where public self-awareness comes in, which is clearly lacking.
- How frequent are accidents involving victims riding scooters? What are your statistics for this year?
- During the active summer season, not a day went by without at least a few accidents involving injuries sustained from falling off a scooter. Unfortunately, the higher percentage of victims were people under 18 years of age. There were also quite a few surgical interventions that were implemented in order to save the lives and protect the health of patients with injuries sustained as a result of using these electric vehicles. A detailed analysis is pending, which the public will be informed about in order to prevent similar types of accidents.