Every day, 3,400 children sustain a sports injury severe enough to go to the emergency room.
To address the worrisome statistic, M&M Physical Therapy will host a free evening event dedicated to youth sports injury prevention on Wednesday, March 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at its Marlton office at 773 Route 70 East, Suite E-125.
Three of M&M’s physical therapists will lead the interactive presentation, which will focus on shoulder injuries caused by throwing in baseball and softball, knee injuries, and concussions. M&M’s staff is certified to treat patients with concussion.
Interested parents and coaches should RSVP to Vikki Hurley-Schubert at (609) 269–2388 or at [email protected] by March 11. Space is limited, reservations are first-come, first-served.
“We continue to see an increasing prevalence of preventable injuries in our younger athletes,” said Brett Michener, a trainer at M&M Physical Therapy, and a father of youth athletes and a Mount Laurel youth-sports coach of golf, baseball, softball and basketball. “We have an obligation to the communities that we serve to share our expertise on how to prevent athletic injuries. As a coach and father of three young athletes in community sports, this topic is near and dear to my heart. I have changed the way my kids warm-up and train in order to prevent future injuries. One of the most important things I can do is share my team’s knowledge about youth sports injuries and prevention.”
According to a recent Safe Kids Worldwide survey conducted with the support of Johnson and Johnson, parents and coaches need more education to protect youth athletes from incidental harm.
M&M recently joined Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit working to prevent childhood injury, the number one killer of children in the United States. The local chapter, Safe Kids Southern NJ, is coordinated through Cooper Children’s Regional Hospital in Camden.
The Safe Kids survey revealed alarming information about youth sports injuries:
- Nine out of 10 athletes say they have been injured playing a sport, and 54 percent say they have played with an injury such as a sprain or even a broken bone.
- Approximately 42 percent of players reported they have hidden or downplayed an injury during a game so they could keep playing, and 62 percent said they know someone else who has done so.
- Only 27 percent of coaches reported a player having hidden or downplayed an injury. More than half of athletes reported playing while injured.
“Many parents and coaches aren’t familiar with the recognition of concussions and when their athletes should return to play,” said Maureen Donnelly coordinator of Safe Kids Southern NJ at Cooper University Children’s Regional Hospital. “Unless parents are attending something like this event, they might not know what to look for. The amount of (sports-related) injuries we see in our emergency room has been increasing. It happens so frequently. Children’s bones, muscles and tendons are still growing, so it makes them more susceptible to injury.”
To learn more about M&M Physical Therapy, visit www.mmptnj.com. To learn more about Safe Kids Worldwide, visit www.safekids.org.
