GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC26) -- For some, the first heavy snowfall of the winter might be a beautiful site.
For others, it may signal a time of struggle.
"It’s pretty common after the first snowstorm of the year," Dr. Brad Burmeister said about snow-related injuries and health problems. "Certainly with the last snowstorm, it far outweighed the number of people we are seeing with Coronavirus. So it’s a really important public health measure to talk about safety in the snow as well."
It might not seem like an overly difficult task, but local doctors say shoveling and working to remove snow can lead to serious injury if people aren’t careful.
"Activities which may not seem to be all that exertive actually are quite exertive and can put a tremendous amount of stress on the heart," HSHS St. Vincent and St. Mary’s Hospitals physician Dr. Angela Wright said. "And we often times do see patients with increased angina or even heart attacks."
A Harvard Medical School article states that shoveling can cause heart attacks, especially with those who do not exercise regularly.
"People will be shoveling snow and working pretty hard and they’ll go 'oh man, I have this awful chest pain,'" Burmeister, a Bellin emergency room physician, said. "And they end up coming to hospital and having symptoms coming from their heart."
Wright works in a local emergency room. She says people shouldn’t even attempt to shovel snow if they have pre-existing heart conditions.
"You should maybe allow someone else to do it... a neighbor," Wright said. "Gosh... kids are always looking for a little extra money too. That might be a way that they could achieve that."
Wright also says one of the most common accidents she sees in the emergency room every year involves snow blowers.
"Even when the machine is off, there’s still torque in that chute," she said. "And never put your hand in there. Those are some pretty sad injuries that often lead to amputations partial and sometimes full amputations of fingers that tend to be dominant hands."
But local doctors want people to know they can still receive treatment for winter injuries amid the pandemic.
"Even though we have Covid going on and we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, we clearly are here for you if any of these things do occur," Wright said.
