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Bizarre trend: Children`s Hospital sees spike in patients before, after Packers games
Bizarre trend: Children`s Hospital sees spike in patients before, after Packers games
WAUWATOSA -- Wisconsinites are known for their love of football, the Green Bay Packers in particular -- but is the excitement coming at the cost of children's safety?
The cheers, the friends, food and football all make for an enjoyable game day experience. For some parents, it seems their attention may be focused too much on the field and not on their young family.
"When patients are coming after the game that implies maybe they were ignoring or not paying attention to their child who was getting sick maybe before or during the game," said Dr. John Cox, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
Children's Hospital
Dr. John Cox, a physician in the pediatric emergency department of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, noticed an interesting tendency when it comes to the flow of patients being admitted.
John Cox
"During the game not many patients were checking in," said Dr. Cox.
Dr. Cox says it's about six to ten patients an hour which would be fairly typical this time of year but...
"After the game it spiked up incredibly. We were seeing about 20-22 patients per hour for the next four to five hours after the game," said Cox.
Dr. Cox has charted the trends and looked at several studies.
"I went back and looked at the numbers and that's what it supported," Cox said. "It could be coincidental but there certainly seems to be a correlation between the Packers game happening and not that many kids come, after lots of kids come," Cox said.
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