Slip, slide and away: Ice-induced ER visits up 20-30 percent

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The situation on Wacker Drive on Tuesday. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times

Updated: April 30, 2011 4:45AM

Several Chicago-area emergency rooms saw a sharp increase in patients overnight — one ER by as much as 30 percent — thanks to dangerously icy streets and sidewalks.

People showed up with dislocated shoulders, as well as wrist and hip fractures, said Jennifer Monasteri, a spokeswoman for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which saw a 20 percent spike in ER visits, all related to the icy conditions.

“There were certainly a lot of slips and falls related to the weather,” Monasteri said.

At Rush University Medical Center, the bump was 30 percent for the same kinds of injuries, spokeswoman Kim Waterman said.

“We’ve been pretty busy with people slipping and falling,” Waterman said.

Waterman said a fractured ankle was the most serious of the weather-related injuries.

The streets proved treacherous Tuesday even for those who got a heads-up.

Just ask Michelle Penwitt of Elmhurst, who was walking to her job in the Loop Tuesday morning.

“There’s a gentleman who fell in front of me and I was thinking, ‘Oh, how sad. I would hate for that to happen to me,’” Penwitt said Tuesday evening as she was getting ready to board the Metra at Ogilvie Transportation Center. “Two seconds later, I wiped out.”

And Penwitt was wearing sensible, flat-soled boots.

“I just ended up on my hip,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll get a bruise tomorrow.”