Take your time, leave the big sharp knife in the drawer and never let a child carve the pumpkin.
Such wisdom will significantly help keep you and your children out of the emergency room this Halloween and perhaps save you from a lifelong hand disability, Great Neck hand surgeon Peter Stein, MD, said.
“Injuries that happen while cutting a jack-o-lantern can be life altering,” said Dr. Stein, an attending surgeon at North Shore University Hospital. “When you cut a nerve or multiple tendons, they require surgery to fix them. And they often do not leave you with normal function down the road.”
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Severed tendons can cause stiffness and impede the ability to grip and make a fist, while a damaged nerve can lead to diminished feeling in your palms and fingertips, Dr. Stein said.
Across the country, pumpkin-carving casualties account for more than half of the approximately 4,400 Halloween-related emergency department visits each year, reports the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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“I don’t want to sound like a killjoy – pumpkin carving is fun and Halloween is a wonderful holiday,” Dr. Stein said. “You just have to be safe and do it appropriately, with a little caution. It’s become one of those things where people don’t realize how unsafe it can be.”
Experts suggest sticking with a kit that has a serrated knife and is designed specifically for carving pumpkins.
“When you’re pushing sharp knives through a pumpkin, they tend to slide. The serrated knives tend not to slide as much,” Dr. Stein said. “Also, people tend to carve pumpkins in a rushed fashion. It’s very important to take your time and to carve pumpkins in a well-lit area.
“Probably the biggest hazard of pumpkin carving – and it’s the thing that concerns us the most – is that we see a lot of kids and adolescents getting these injuries. The carving should be left to the adults,” he added.
Carving the face of the pumpkin first – before opening up the top of the pumpkin and scooping out the “gut” – can make the job less slippery, and hence, safer, Dr. Stein advised.
“The key is to be safe and to avoid injuries that can really affect the quality of your life – long term and short term,” he said. “You can suffer a skin injury on your hand, get it stitched up and miss a few days of school. That’s short term. But if you’re a 15-year-old and you cut a tendon in your hand, you may not be able to make a complete fist when you’re 45. That’s long term and it’s devastating to see that result.”
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