Friday, July 17, 2020
Health care providers are still seeing complications from patients delaying care in this pandemic.
Surgeons at OrthoCincy are still seeing the aftermath of many people putting off important care in this pandemic, sometimes because people are still afraid of going out in this COVID-19 pandemic.
Other times, they delay just because they don’t think it’s an injury that requires medical care. Christine Thomason said she took a bad fall and waited weeks to come into see orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Slaughter.
"It just really didn't bother me,” said Thomason. “It really wasn't that bad. I mean, I had a little swelling, little aching. I guess me being a farm girl, I'm just tough, I guess."
"She presented to me about five weeks after she broke her wrist,” said Dr. Slaughter. “One of the reasons she didn't come in was she thought it was just a sprain. With COVID going around, people are more hesitant to go see doctors or hospitals. It continued to bother her for five weeks. Her daughter convinced her to come in, and it was a bad wrist fracture. Bones usually start healing within about 2 weeks. Since she was five weeks in, it was healed in a bad position that, with her young age and how active she is working on her farm, would not do well long-term. It required me to go in and rebreak the bone to get it realigned."
Dr. Slaughter reminds us that OrthoCincy has an orthopaedic urgent care. You can get seen most days right away for an evaluation.
Even if you’re not sure if something is wrong, getting evaluated right away can put you on the path to proper treatment.