MUSC surgeon speaks about pumpkin carving-related hand injuries

One Halloween thrill you want to stay away from is cutting a hand when carving a pumpkin.

Dr. Charles Daly, one of two orthopedic hand surgeons at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), this week shared an important message about keeping safe during carving.

“We published a paper in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine last year looking at this problem,” he told the Charleston City Paper. “About 20,000 people over 10 years had to go to the emergency room because of pumpkin-related injuries” in the United States, Daly said. Unfortunately, many of those injured were children and teenagers.

Staying safe with pumpkins

Luckily, there are things you can do to stay safe while participating in pumpkin-carving fun, he said.

First, he recommended that pumpkin carving be reserved for people older than 10. Even so, he advised parental supervision and “judgment on maturity levels and coordination levels” of older kids.

Second, and regardless of age, everyone engaging in this activity should use a pumpkin-carving kit, Daley said. These are available at just about any store that sells Halloween-related crafts and materials. Kits contain a serrated pumpkin knife with a blunt tip, which according to Daly is “much safer to use and more efficient at carving pumpkins.”

Daly also told the City Paper that although he sees patients every year with carving-related hand injuries, he hasn’t treated a wound so far caused by one of these special carving knives. The kits aren’t perfect, Daly added, but they’re a $5 or $10 investment that greatly reduces the risk of an emergency room visit — and the hefty bill that might come with it.

Daly also advocated using common-sense knife safety, such as cutting away from the body and using a level surface. And, to address the concerns of his “colleagues who take care of burns,” he said carvers should swap out regular candles for the battery-operated kind, which are a much less risky alternative.

All in all, according to Daly, pumpkin carving is an activity you “should be able to enjoy” — just try to be thoughtful about it.