Danger at Home

To the American Association of Plastic Surgeons meeting in Galveston, Texas last week, Dr. William S. Kiskadden described a little-advertised aspect of the average U.S. home. It encloses, he said, "dangerous, poisonous and even lethal appliances . . . frightful traps for the unwary young." He listed:

P: Incinerators and gas and electric heaters, which burn children to the consistency of "an underdone steak."

P: Acids and bleaches, which "scour the inside of little stomachs just as ruthlessly as they clean mother's pots and pans."

P: Automatic mangles "adept at taking the skin off Junior's arm."

P: Ant paste containing arsenic, "attractive to ants and children alike."

Plastic Surgeon Kiskadden urged his colleagues to warn parents of an equally potent but less obvious danger: the hollow-chamber type of appliance plug used with many vacuum cleaners, toasters, coffeepots and most irons. Even when the appliance is disconnected, the other end of the cord is often left plugged into the wall outlet. In eight years at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, he and Dr. Sanford R. Dietrich have seen 16 children, mostly under three, with severe electrical burns of the mouth. These, said Dr. Kiskadden, "are almost always caused by putting a live plug in a wet and drooling mouth ... It does not stay in the mouth long, but it can do a lot of damage."

Because plastic surgeons see so much of the damage done by avoidable accidents in the home, the association voted to set up a committee on child safety, with Dr. Kiskadden as chairman, to furnish speakers to groups of parents.

In Chicago, a carefully coordinated program, sponsored by the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to save child victims of poisoning, was declared an unqualified success. In four months, 155 youngsters have been treated without a single death (as against six such deaths in 1952 at the six hospitals taking part in the program), though 63 were so severely poisoned that they had to spend several days in the hospital. Now it is hoped to extend the plan to hospitals throughout Chicago.

Basis of the program is a standing-operating-procedure manual, in loose-leaf so that it can be kept up to date with the growing number of poisons used in the modern home. This is no mean trick because of the multiplicity of trade names. Poisonous components are listed with antidotes and other treatments. Parents who telephone a hospital emergency room crying that a child has swallowed poison are told to make the youngster vomit if possible (by tickling the throat with a spoon handle). Then they should take the child and a sample of the poison (the vomitus will serve in a pinch) to the hospital right away. There, the old-fashioned stomach pump is still the mainstay of treatment.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.