One spark can cause lasting harm this July Fourth

The Fourth of July is a time for celebration, but it can quickly turn tragic. Every year, Harborview Medical Center sees approximately 55 people hurt by fireworks during the holiday. 

 “We're going to see a lot of people who completely changed their lives because they made one simple, bad decision and now either they've lost a hand, they've lost their eyes, they've lost another appendage, or worse,” said Dr. Arvin Akhavan, an emergency medicine physician at UW Medicine. 

 “Fireworks are powerful explosives that can cause devastating damage to hands and other parts of the body in a split second,” said Dr. Chelsea Boe, an orthopedic surgeon at UW Medicine. She added that these types of injuries can change your life. 

 “The injuries themselves are blast injuries,” Boe said. “So, it's a huge amount of force that tends to have an explosive impact on the hand. So, they cause fractures, dislocations, which means that the bones come out of joint, they come out of place.” 

 Boe says the safest thing you can do is to stay away from personal fireworks. She recommends going to watch a professional fireworks display instead. And if you do light fireworks, do so from a safe distance and don’t light them in your hands. 

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