Yale Doctors Explain How to Avoid Top Winter Injuries

With Tuesday’s winter weather, many people are taking precautions when it comes to driving and staying warm. Doctors with Yale Medicine warn you should also try to avoid winter injuries.

Everyone has their own method when it comes to clearing a path.

“I’m the anal retentive shoveler here. I make sure that every drop of snow is put away,” Anne Louise Mikulak, of West Hartford, said.

Some West Hartford winter lovers are familiar with icy walkways and the exertion of shoveling.

“That's great because I haven't gone to a gym since before COVID,” Jonathan Rheaume, of West Hartford, said.

However, they also know what it’s like to experience a winter injury.

“I've fallen down a few times,” Mikulak said.

“It's very easy to twist an ankle more or worse,” Maximo Art, of AM Landscaping, said.

“I have gone cross country skiing in the West Hartford reservoirs. I've gone down and that bruised and broke a rib. And that can take three to six months to heal,” Rheaume said.

So before anyone has to face a recovery like that, five specialists at Yale Medicine, who are also professors at the Yale School of Medicine, are weighing in on the top winter injuries to avoid. They include everything from harm to the hands, the spine, and the heart.

When it comes to hands, they are susceptible to the cold.

“Raynaud's phenomenon, about 10% of the population has some sort of Raynaud's,” Adnan Prsic, MD, Yale plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said. “The blood vessels constrict as it relates to cold so people are very sensitive to cold, the fingers typically turn white, blue, and then they turn red. With those changes in the fingers, might get experienced pain, burning and numbness and tingling in the fingers.”

Yale doctors also see severe injuries in fingers from snow blowers.

“People have snow blowers that get clogged. This happens because really dense snow, sometimes ice or chunks of rock even, can get stuck within the blades of the snow blower. And when that happens, there's a safety stick that comes with all snow blowers and that you should make sure to use but people think that if their snow blower is off and unplugged, then it may actually be safe to manually disengage those blades using their hands,” Andrea Halim, MD, Yale Medicine orthopedic surgeon, said.

“Unfortunately, because torque often builds up with those blades, even if the snow blower is turned off, as soon as it gets unclogged, those blades will start turning again and they can cause really quite devastating injuries to the fingers," she continued.

It is common for patients to get hand fractures from falls. Slippery ice is also responsible for serious spinal injuries. Shoveling can cause strains, too.

“Very commonly, we see patients that come into the clinic that are lifting heavy snow that may be lifted inappropriately or with not the best mechanics in mind,” Daniel Rubio, MD, Yale Medicine orthopedic spine surgeon, said. “They ended up straining a muscle or sometimes even like training on one of the disks in their back.”

That strenuous chore can lead to something even more serious: cardiac arrest.

“People are cooped up in the cold in the winter, not really going out or exerting themselves. And when they go out and try to push it on these cold days where there's a lot of snow, that's when we see people have symptoms that are concerning for heart attacks,” Samit Shah, MD, PhD, Yale Medicine interventional cardiologist, said.

Shah says anyone experiencing symptoms should seek medical help.

“Chest pain is the most common symptom,” he said. “Any discomfort in the chest, sometimes in the back, shortness of breath, sweating.”

Those shoveling should be aware of another vascular disorder: thoracic outlet syndrome.

“We see mostly in young healthy patients who do a lot of repetitive overhead activities,” David Strosberg, MD, Yale Medicine vascular surgeon, said. “The artery vein and nerve become compressed as they leave the chest and continue on to the arm. And so with that chronic compression patients may develop swelling of the arm discoloration, numbness or tingling.”

The doctors say there are several precautions people can take to prevent themselves from getting hurt during the winter.

Those include dressing warmly with mittens on your hands and good boots with treads to prevent falling. You can use a walking stick on slippery roads.

If you are shoveling, lift with your legs, and not your back. Pace yourself. Use caution with snow equipment, like snow blowers.

If you can avoid going outside until the professionals have cleared snow, do so.

Many New Englanders are not willing to miss out on the beauty of winter, putting safety first.

“Rubber boots, so that’s nice, feet don’t get wet and stay pretty warm,” Matthew Satterwhite, who was snow blowing his West Hartford driveway, said. “Snow blowers and other equipment like this, it's good to have ear plugs to maintain your hearing.”

Many are taking precautions before heading out.

“I did movement and exercise. Prior to coming outside, I did stretching,” Mikulak said. “I've went inside and I just came back outside to do more work. I paced myself.”

They’re making the most of the snow.

“My son's best friends lived three houses down, and I've encouraged him to have a snowball fight with them,” Rheaume said. “Because when it comes down to it, the snow is absolutely perfect for snowballs."