Posted on: Wednesday, July 3, 2002

ISLAND VOICES
Fireworks: Fourth of July brings shrieks, sobs of pain

By Dr. Thomas G. Crabtree
President of the Hawai'i Plastic Surgery Society

Like most on the island, my family and I will spend a part of the Fourth of July celebration watching fireworks. Fireworks are beautiful. Fireworks are fun. Fireworks evoke shrieks of laughter and shouts of joy.

For those of us in the medical profession, the Fourth of July often brings sounds of a different sort. All too often, our Fourth is filled with the shrieks and sobs of pain — pain from patients with fireworks injuries.

Fireworks are made with gunpowder. Gunpowder is an explosive.

In the rock, paper, scissors game of fireworks vs. flesh, gunpowder always wins. Our fingers, faces, eyes and eardrums always lose.

Fingers and hands are crippled, faces are burned, eyeballs ruptured and eardrums burst. All of these things hurt. Some of these events are life-altering. None of these injuries is fun.

Destroyed digits and a crippled hand force a person to relearn even the simplest tasks of daily life. A burned face may be scarred forever. A ruptured eyeball results in permanent blindness. Burst eardrums can cause deafness but may in addition result in a lifetime of ringing in the ears and possible permanent dizziness and nausea.

All of these injuries will happen in Hawai'i this Fourth of July. They always do.

Sparklers are safe, right? They're not explosive.

True, sparklers do not blast tissue apart, but sparklers do burn at temperatures approaching those of molten metal and lava. We put up barriers on the Big Island to keep us a safe distance from lava.

We hold sparklers in our hand.

The temporary thrill of fireworks is just that — fleeting. The possible consequences, however, are forever.

Mothers say it's funny 'til someone loses an eye. Someone did last year. The laughter stopped. Accidents happen, but they need not happen as often as they do.

Play smart. Play safe. Let's hear laughter this Fourth.

No tears allowed.