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BATON ROUGE — There are plenty of frights to go around on Halloween, but hand injury probably isn't one you expect.
Dr. Sanj Kakar, a Mayo Clinic hand and wrist surgeon, says almost a third of those injuries are in kids ages 10 to 14.
"It's primarily stabbing injuries where the knife may slip, and so, they can cut things like tendons, which are the ropes that help move your hands. But they can also break bones," he said.
Most of the injuries happen when people are carving pumpkins.
"A lot of people might just go to the kitchen and grab a sharp knife, but there are good studies out there showing that actual pumpkin-specific carving knives, actually the force you need to injure
yourself, is higher if you use one of those than if you use a standard knife. So I would use a pumpkin carving kit, No. 1," Dr Kakar said.
No. 2, Dr. Kakar says, is to let kids handle designing the jack-o'-lantern, but make sure adults
do the carving.
And third, make sure you're always supporting the pumpkin with your non-cutting hand.
"If you're right-handed, use your left hand to support the pumpkin and carve from the top down
as opposed to the bottom up. It's very easy for the knife to slip and go into your hand," he said.
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