For the first time in history, we are experiencing a heightened level of uncertainty across the globe from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Stay-at-home orders are in place, school is canceled for the school year, and families, friends and co-workers are learning how to connect virtually to practice social distancing.
While this situation is hard on everyone, parents are also dealing with the trials of homeschooling their children and helping them keep busy. It’s hard for kids, especially young children, to understand the concept of social distancing. And parents are doing all they can to protect their family from the spread of the virus. However, with boredom and extra time on their hands, kids certainly can find ways to get into more mischief.
A Family of Five Stuck at Home
Charles and Terin Jaggard have three children, Paisley (8), Clay (5) and Waylon (2). The Jaggard family spends most of their time outdoors. Fortunately, the weather has been nice enough for the family to enjoy gardening, hikes and playing outside. The family has done its best to keep busy during this time.
“Apart from working, we’ve been tackling house projects and connecting with others through Zoom,” said Charles. “We meet with our church groups a few times a week, which is uplifting and encouraging, and have a standing Friday night ‘date night’ with close friends over Zoom. Everyone puts the kids to bed and takes some time to talk and laugh and process the week.”
The family participated in Fishers’ “Chalk Your Walk” weekend by decorating their front sidewalk. They also helped start a small outdoor community pantry and library located at College Park Church Castleton that is filled with food boxes, toiletries and theological resources for those in need.
With three kids stuck at home, the Jaggards are very lucky with how their children have handled the situation. “They’ve been on board with everything,” said Charles. “Our 8-year-old understands things the best and misses her teachers and friends. Clay’s happy to just see everyone on the computer each week and Waylon has no clue what’s going on but seems to be happy spending so much time with the family.”
Since the stay-at-home orders have been in place, the family hasn’t been anywhere except for some local parks. The kids understand why (and possibly enjoy) they are not running errands with Mom and Dad right now.
Getting Injured During a Pandemic
Charles and Terin’s 5-year-old, Clay, enjoys playing Legos, ninja turtles and fishing. Being stuck at home, he keeps busy with e-learning activities and weekly Zoom calls with his class. He also spends a lot of time playing with his brother and sister.
On the evening of Tuesday, April 7th, two weeks into the stay-at-home order, Clay was playing on the family playset with his siblings when he got hurt.
“He was trying to copy his big sister by doing a backflip off the playset trapeze bar,” said Charles. “He got scared and held on too long, dropping to the ground after the pain made him let go.”
Charles used the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevate) method on Clay’s arm. The next morning, Clay was still complaining of pain and being extra protective of his injured arm.
As the Clinical Trial Manager for a total joint replacement surgeon at OrthoIndy, Charles knew exactly where to take Clay in this situation.
Charles said, “When’s the best time for your family to have their first-ever broken bone? If you said, ‘during your state’s peak infectious period of a global pandemic when you aren’t supposed to be going anywhere,’ then you nailed it.”
Due to the ever-evolving situation with COVID-19, OrthoIndy closed several of its locations to help reduce the spread of the disease and better protect its patients and staff. Luckily for Clay, OrthoIndy Urgent Care still has a few locations open for immediate access to orthopedic care.
“Like a lot of parents, we’d had the discussion with our kids about playing safely around the house because of the increased danger with heading to healthcare facilities right now,” said Charles. “We knew this was an ‘essential business’ but were still worried about contracting the virus because of the visit. However, we were glad to know OrthoIndy Urgent Care facilities were available to us and the chances of encountering an infected individual were far less than heading to an emergency room.”
Charles took Clay to the urgent care at OrthoIndy South, where he works. As an employee, Charles was still impressed with the care and attention his son received.
“Everyone was kind and the check-in went smoothly, even with Clay being a new patient,” said Charles. “Bobbie was particularly gentle and empathetic as the X-rays were taken.”
The X-rays showed that Clay sustained a buckle fracture in both the radius and ulna of his left arm.
Anatomy
The forearm is made up of two bones in your lower arm, the radius and ulna. A fracture in the forearm can occur near the wrist, in the middle of the forearm or near the elbow.
The forearm motion allows us to rotate our palms up or down. The ulna stays still while the radius rotates around it. If you are twisting a bottle cap, you are using the motion of your forearm. A broken forearm can affect your ability to rotate your arm and even bend or straighten the wrist and elbow.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU FRACTURED YOUR FOREARM?
Treatment of a Broken Forearm
If the broken bone is in a good position or can be put back into good alignment, a splint or cast can be used to keep the forearm steady until it heals. An orthopedic physician will monitor the healing of the fracture with frequent clinic visits and X-rays.
“Alisha talked Clay through everything she was doing to his arm when putting the splint on,” said Charles. “Another medical assistant, Mindy, also helped make the process less scary and as comfortable as possible for him.”
Clay will wear a splint for a week and then he will follow-up with a surgeon. At his follow-up appointment, the physicians will repeat X-rays and make recommendations on the next steps.
Working at OrthoIndy, Charles knows how the facility runs normally, but he was impressed with the precautions the staff is taking to keep everyone safe.
“You could tell the staff and facility were ‘on it’ with their COVID-19 preparations,” he said.
“A screener met us at the door to take our temperatures and asked us both a set of screening questions.”
Additionally, the staff are gloved, masked and continually disinfecting commonly used areas. Tape marks are on the floor to help individuals maintain social distancing from the front desk staff, along with furniture rearranged to keep patients 6-feet apart.
“Per CDC recommendations, we were also masked during our visit and felt very comfortable interacting with the staff in what was obviously a very clean environment,” he added.
A pandemic is not the most ideal time to be injured, but Charles is so happy that OrthoIndy Urgent Care is open to provide urgent orthopedic care. He also thinks Clay has enjoyed the special treatment since he’s the middle child of three.
“We just want to say ‘thank you’ to the staff keeping these facilities open and an option for parents right now,” said Charles. “We’ll never know for certain if visiting OrthoIndy over going to another facility during all this kept us from getting the virus, but we do know it didn’t increase our chances. Unfortunately, we had to go out, but I am so grateful we didn’t have to go anywhere else.”
If you are injured, save time and money and visit an OrthoIndy Urgent Care clinic instead of going to the emergency room. Find an open location near you.
Schedule an appointment
Your well-being is important to us. Click the button below or call us to schedule an appointment with one of our orthopedic specialists. If your injury or condition is recent, you can walk right into one of our OrthoIndy Urgent Care locations for immediate care. For rehabilitation and physical therapy, no referral is needed to see one of our physical therapists.
