• Pool Safety for the Summer | Dr. Josyann Abisaab

    While staycations are great fun and a relaxing way to enjoy the summer, they can also be a recipe for disaster.  As emergency room doctors like Dr. Josyann Abisaab can attest, children are often brought to the emergency room with accidents that could have been avoided. The home swimming pool can be just as dangerous as the vast ocean. As the Insurance Information Institute reports, each year about 43,000 people are injured in or near a pool and more than 600 people drown at their home pools or at public pool locations. You should make sure that anyone who swims in the family pool knows how to swim well before…

  • Ankle Injuries and the ER: Dr. Josyann Abisaab

    One of the most common injuries seen in the ER is the ankle injury. Ankle sprains, breaks and fractures are most often a result of activities which require quick stops and starts, as well as abrupt changes in direction. Improper footwear is also a common cause of such injuries. Emergency care doctors like Dr. Josyann Abisaab understand that it is important to: Do daily exercises to strengthen the ankles, as well as to increase their flexibility Strengthen and support old ankle injuries Wear the correct shoes for an activity such as hiking or soccer Avoid running on uneven surfaces.

  • Understanding Triage: Dr. Josyann Abisaab

    ER physicians like Dr. Josyann Abisaab know that people wonder why emergency rooms often don’t treat patients in the precise order in which they arrive. This due to the concept of triage. Triage is generally a patient’s first stop in the emergency department. It is the site where a member of the ER team, usually a nurse, evaluates the patient’s condition and assigns him to one of three categories: 1.       Imminently life-threatening 2.       Urgent, but not imminently life-threatening 3.       Less urgent As a result of triage, someone who arrives with a life-threatening condition can be seen immediately, even if he or she was not the first to arrive. Conversely, this means that…

  • Asthma and Emergency Care

    Having a child with asthma can be very stressful. It is hard to know when an ER visit is necessary. Emergency care doctors such as Dr. Josyann Abisaab recommend you prepare for such a visit in advance, and become familiar with the symptoms that need emergency care. Some of them are: If your child’s coloring changes; blue or gray lips and/or fingernails. If your child has difficulty talking. If your child’s peak flow reading drops below 50% and does not improve with medication. If your child repeatedly uses rescue medications for severe flare-up symptoms which do not go away after five or ten minutes or return quickly. If the areas…

  • Protecting the Knee from ACL Tears

    A very painful injury seen in ERs by doctors like Dr. Josyann Abisaab is an ACL tear. The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is one of the four main ligaments which control the motion of the knee. This injury usually occurs in “weekend warriors” who play only once or twice a week, and do not build up the required strength and flexibility in between games. To prevent ER visits with torn ACLs, strengthen the area by doing lunges, squats, hamstring exercises and leg presses on a regular basis. This will help secure and brace the knee during games.