Sunday 11 December 2011

CROCKED... NOT TO MENTION STUNG, BITTEN AND SHOCKED - dailystar.co.uk

11 December 2011

TWO people needed hospital treatment for crocodile bites last year – and two for the effects of zero gravity.

The oddball complaints are the weirdest in a list of strange reasons people went to UK accident and emergency units last year.

As well as the croc and alligator bite victims, 17 people were hurt by a nip from a venomous spider and 34 by a jellyfish or other sea creature.
Another four were attacked by scorpions, 58 were seen after contact with a poisonous snake or lizard and 1,014 stung by hornets.

The hospital admission statistics from 2010/11 also revealed two patients who needed treatment “for an illness resulting from staying too long in a weightless environment” – believed to be people who have taken zero-gravity space-simulation flights.
Another 22 people were hit by lightning, the same number who needed treatment after their nightwear caught fire.

Two people were hurt in earthquakes, seven in volcanic eruptions before being brought back to the UK for treatment and ten were injured in avalanches.

Rat bites put 24 people in A&E and 325 were pricked by plants. Thirteen people needed treatment after accidentally suffocating themselves in bed.

More than 4,000 people were treated for injuries sustained while using sports equipment, while 6,600 hurt themselves in falls from ladders.

A thirsty 1,968 came to grief with a hot drink, while 4,200 needed help after skiing, roller-skating, skateboarding or ice-skating accidents.
And 350 cyclists were treated in hospital after crashing into other bike riders.

In total, casualty staff treated more than one million people last year, among them 94,019 injured after “slipping, tripping or stumbling”.

There were almost 1,000 shooting victims but just 176 were classified as being “attacks” with the other injuries being accidental or self-inflicted.
Almost 5,000 people with stabbing injuries were treated by medics as well as 3,288 who were attacked with a blunt instrument.

But be careful while you read this because more than 13,000 people – one person every 40 minutes – ended up needing hospital treatment for falling off a chair and twice that number were hurt falling out of bed.




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