Editorial: Be careful in trimming trees, climbing on ladders

On Sunday, a doctor in St. Joseph Mercy Hospital’s emergency room said since the COVID-19 virus hit, there have been many, many people coming into the ER after having fallen from tree trimming projects and from ladders up against their houses for eaves-cleaning and the like.
On Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday morning, St. Joe’s ER was jumping. One man fell 20 feet from a deer stand he was using. Others came with police escorts, one with an apparent stroke and another in full cardiac arrest with a person continuing chest compressions as they rolled him down the hallway.
Many were able to go home after treatment and proving they could walk on their own. These were very happy people.
On Sunday, the St. Joe parking lot was crammed with vehicles, as family members tended to their loved ones in the hospital beds. When you enter the hospital as a visitor you have to have your picture taken by a device that measures your temperature. Then you can get a sticker to show you were tested for COVID symptoms and are allowed to enter.
We can report all these details to you because we spent the week end at St. Joe’s tending to a loved one. Things are so different now at the hospital, with masks everywhere and everything six feet apart. Nobody wants to get any sicker than they already are. It is what it is and we’re in it.