Lithuanian towns and cities have experienced ice on streets and their sidewalks that have led to people falling to the ground and suffering different injuries, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT and Valdemaras Šukšta report.
In the New Year weekend, on Sunday, January 2, 179 patients with injuries were admitted to the Republican Vilnius University Hospital (RVUL), 25 of whom were hospitalised. This is triple the number of injuries compared to an average day, said Dalia Smagurauskaitė, the RVUL spokesperson.
Read also: Many in Riga turn to doctors with injuries suffered falling down on slippery streets
Smagurauskaitė said that injured people kept coming to the hospital on Monday as well. «I’m in the Emergency Unit, and I see that patients keep arriving with ambulances. It’s a very difficult situation», she added.
The most common injuries are ankle, wrist, or other bone fractures, sprained ligaments, and ruptured tendons, according to the hospital spokesperson. «There are also people with concussions, as they fall and hit their heads», Smagurauskaitė said.
The situation was also serious in the country’s second largest city, Kaunas. Saulius Tvirbutas, the spokesman of Kaunas Clinics, said that 119 trauma patients were admitted to the hospital on Sunday, compared to the daily average of around 70.
The article originally appeared on LRT English: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1577058/icy-pavements-leave-hundreds-injured-in-lithuania
Slippery sidewalks in Lithuania take several hundred persons to hospitals
