A representative of the Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopaedics (TOS) explained that on Thursday, the 22nd of December, the influx of patients went down slightly, adding that the day before the hospital received 116 patients.
Traumotologists worked without rest until 04:00 a.m. on Thursday. A total of 17 people were admitted with fractures of various kind. The hospital is almost out of room. Patients’ age varied, as did their injuries. Most of them suffered from bone fractures.
TOS Patient Admission Office manager Guntis Naglis predicts patient influx may remain high for a couple of days. If air temperature doesn’t drop again, he said, it may be calm. He also said
that the next influx of patients is expected after Christmas.
Chairman of Riga 2nd Hospital Sandris Petronis, too, admits the situation in the hospital is as usual for a day of winter – peaceful. «Basically ice remains only in places where is was not cleared,» he said.
At the same time, Petronis said there were as many people the day before as there were in the first days of this week’s thaw. Among admitted patients, 78% were people who received injuries as a result of slipping and falling down on streets. The «fallen» account for approximately half of the patients admitted to the hospital.
As previously reported, roads and walkways in Latvia became slippery this week as a result of increasing air temperature and freezing rain. Under these conditions the situation on the roads tends to change frequently. This means ice may form again even after roads were coated with anti-slip solution.
More on this topic: Snow thaws in Riga; seven water pump units deployed to deal with possible road flooding