Many victims vow never to touch a firework again

SIPHO Nkosi* now shakes hands with his left.

The 14-year-old won’t play wing for the local rugby team anymore. He is also worried that he won’t be able to write when he returns to school.

“It was like a bomb,” said Sipho, describing the firework that tore off the tips of his fingers on New Year’s Eve.

The young boy is one of 42 people admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital’s hand clinic on the last night of the year for fireworks- related hand injuries.

The City of Joburg has by-laws regulating fireworks. Metro police spokesman Wayne Minnaar warned last year that, in terms of municipal by-laws, fireworks may be lit only between 11pm on New Year’s Eve and 1am on New Year’s Day, and 7pm to 10pm on New Year’s Day.

In terms of the Explosives Act, no person shall allow or permit any children under the age of 16 to handle or use fireworks, except under the supervision of an adult.

Today, Sipho was due to go for his second operation to repair multiple lacerations and tissue damage on his hands.

“The fuse was too short. When I struck the match it just exploded in my hands,” he said.

“I first started lighting fireworks when I was eight. But I will never touch a firework again,” he said, flinching as the nurse injected him.

“We amputated 30 fingers and eight thumbs over the New Year’s period,” said hand clinic head Grant Biddulph.

“A significant number had amputations done on their fingers, especially the index finger and the thumbs, used to hold the firecrackers,” he explained.

“These are blast injuries. They are excruciatingly painful because your fingertips are concentrated with nerve endings, making them sensitive,” said Biddulph while undressing Amanda Khoza’s* bandages.

“I saw a three-year-old holding a lit firework. I ran to her and grabbed it to throw it away, but it exploded in my hands,” Khoza said.

Her fingertips

had been blown off.

Many of the casualties spoke of being “bitten by the cricket”, which is township slang for a firecracker.

“They cut my fingers off,” said Emmanuel Chauke, 35, in another ward bed, showing that the index finger and thumb on his right hand had been removed.

“I was trying to show my twins, aged nine, how to light a cracker. The wick burnt but it didn’t explode.

“I thought it was a dead one, so I picked it up and then it exploded. I couldn’t see, every- thing went white.

“I need those fingers! The thumb and index are useful to have,” he said.

“People must please take care with fireworks. They are very dangerous and I will never go near them again.”

Walter Stuart, the former head of the hand clinic, said: “Finger amputations and hand injuries are as predictable as anything during New Year’s.

“One must not assume negligence. In many cases, we have seen the fireworks to be faulty or duds.” * Names have been changed.