{"id":14265,"date":"2020-11-18T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=14265"},"modified":"2020-11-18T12:00:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T19:00:14","slug":"snowblowers-and-hand-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/snowblowers-and-hand-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowblowers And Hand Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em>By Derek F. Ipsen, DO,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Hand Surgeon,\u00a0 St. Luke\u2019s Clinic \u2013 Sun Valley Sports Medicine<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7844\" src=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/WoodRiver2C-300x161.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"161\" \/>As the cold weather and snow begins to descend upon the Valley, most of us are thinking about winter preparation\u2014blowing out our sprinkler systems, making sure the furnace is working and the filters are clean, and digging out those cold-weather clothes. At the top of the list should be snowblower maintenance. That handy piece of machinery can turn an all-day shoveling slog into a quick and satisfying pleasure\u2014that\u2019s if you don\u2019t end up in the Emergency Department at the local hospital with a serious injury to your hand or hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Every year thousands of people end up in the Emergency Department with minor and severe hand injuries due to snowblowers. The most common accidents involve cleaning heavy snow out of the fan when it becomes plugged. A common misconception is that a snowblower is safe if the gear drive is not engaged or if the motor is completely off. This is a misconception because the fan on most models has a spring built in to prevent shearing pins every time the blower gets plugged. Once the snow is cleared, the fan that is under tension will spring forward much faster than any human can move and it will injure anything that is in its path. Usually that is a fingertip, but it can be much more severe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Snowblowers almost always come with a cleanout device. Please ALWAYS use this device and not your hand. If you have lost this device, then find something other than your hand to replace it. Unlike a lizard\u2019s tail, fingers do not grow back and, due to the high concentration of nerve endings in the area, finger and hand injuries can be quite painful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Don\u2019t risk your hands just to save a few seconds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><i>Dr. Ipsen is located at St. Luke\u2019s Clinic \u2013 Sun Valley Sports Medicine, 100 Hospital Drive, Physician Office Annex, Suite 105. Call to make an appointment, (208) 726-5027.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Derek F. Ipsen, DO,\u00a0 Hand Surgeon,\u00a0 St. Luke\u2019s Clinic \u2013 Sun Valley Sports Medicine As the cold weather and snow begins to descend upon the Valley, most of us are thinking about winter preparation\u2014blowing out our sprinkler systems, making sure the furnace is working and the filters are clean, and digging out those cold-weather [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-news","8":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}