Be careful out there, surgeons warn

PEOPLE should cut their hedges, not their summers, short this bank holiday weekend, doctors have warned.

Trauma surgeons report seeing a spike in nasty injuries at the start of summer as people use the extra time and sunny weather to fix up their homes and gardens, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) said.

Professor Vivien Lees, a hand and plastic surgeon, said: “Over the past 20 years of working in the NHS, I have treated patients who have suffered some very serious injuries – from severed fingers and broken bones to painful infections.

“Some of my patients have been unable to work after having an accident while making home improvements or gardening.”

There have been more than 25,700 hospital admissions for gardening and DIY-related accidents in the past three years, the RCS said.

Helen Langford, of Tameside, Manchester, said she “wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through what I went through” after severing four fingers on her right hand.

The 56-year-old was trying to make a side table with an electric saw before it slipped as she cut timber in her garage last year.

Ms Langford had both her middle finger and part of her ring finger amputated, and can no longer pursue her main interests of playing the piano, painting, and making sculptures.

She said: “My recovery has been a very difficult, hard slog and I am still receiving trauma counselling.”