LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Carving pumpkins may be a popular fall activity, but it can also be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
The American Society for Surgery of the Hand said they see four or five patients every Halloween season with severe injuries to their hands and fingers.
Doctors with UofL Health said cuts and lacerations, even nerve damage and severed tendons, can occur while carving pumpkins—especially if you slip while using a sharp knife.
"(With) most of these injuries, the person is handling a knife without being careful, and usually they're trying to hold things with their hand, and, most of the time, the people trying to carve basically stab themselves with their hands, especially when they're using the opposite hand that is the hand holding the object to get it stable, trying to carve it on their knees to stabilize it," Dr. Elkin Galvis, a hand surgeon with UofL Physicians-Kleinert Kutz Hand Care. "Keep focusing on what you're doing. Most of the accidents, people tell you it happened in a fragment of a second, they weren't paying attention, got distracted, you lose it for one second. My advice is, stay focused on what you're doing and keep your environment clean."
Galvis said one of the best ways to avoid injury is by choosing to paint a pumpkin instead of carving it, or using plastic pumpkin carving kits instead of sharp kitchen knives.
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