Dozens seek emergency care due to falls on icy sidewalks, roads

Dozens of people got hurt on Thursday and Friday due to ice on the street. They fell while walking or cycling or had a car accident and had to go to the emergency room.

Between Thursday evening and Friday morning, the Admiraal de Ruyterziekenhuis in Goes received “at least 20 patients in the emergency room with complaints related to the slipperiness. You can think of falling on their head or sustaining hand, wrist, hip, leg, and back injuries.”

Hospital Reinier de Graaf in Delft also said it was “busier than usual again at our emergency room due to the slippery conditions in the region. About 14 people visited our emergency room after a fall, mainly after a head injury or wrist, ankle, and hip fractures.”

The emergency department of the Haga Hospital in The Hague treated 25 people on Friday morning who had fallen victim to the slipperiness. “It mainly concerns head injuries and broken bones. It is busier than usual; this is not what we normally see on a Friday morning,” said a spokesperson. The hospital in The Hague will deploy extra people on Saturday because it expects a new influx of injured people.

The Groene Hart Hospital treated at least six fall victims in its emergency room on Friday. The Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland in Rotterdam had “an extremely busy evening, night, and morning. People from the late shift worked through the night. We see many people with wrist fractures because they fell.”

Noordwest Hospital Group in Alkmaar and Den Helder had “40 percent more emergency care than on a normal day. This mainly concerns injuries from a fall. You can think of various types of bone fractures (hip, ankle, wrists) and bruises. We are currently seeing a lot of hip socket fractures.”

Other hospitals remained relatively quiet. For example, the Amphia hospital in Breda says its emergency room “has not had an extra influx of injuries related to the slipperiness and the night frost.” The Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen only had one fallen cyclist on Friday and no fall victims on Thursday. The St Jansdal in Hardewijk also did not treat many extra patients because of the icy roads. This morning there was “a single broken bone due to a fall,” but there is “no question of huge crowds,” a spokesperson said.

While it was also quiet in the Martini Hospitals in Groningen in recent days, there were slightly more “broken parts” in the ER last night. A spokesperson could not say how many people exactly. “But it is not too bad. People seem to be well prepared for the slipperiness.”