Number of fireworks victims back to pre-Covid levels

During the turn of the new year this past weekend, plastic surgeons were needed to treat roughly the same number of fireworks victims with serious injuries as in the years before the coronavirus pandemic. In total, there were 52 victims with wounds that were bad enough they required a reconstructive surgeon, said the NVPC, the association of plastic surgeons in the Netherlands. Slightly less than half of those victims were boys under the age of 18.

At least 32 finger amputations were performed. The doctors also treated many broken bones, eye injuries and serious burns. Legal fireworks injured ten people. "Just like in previous years," illegal fireworks were the biggest culprit, the NVPC concluded on the basis of a survey among plastic surgeons in the country. Incidentally, fifteen of the victims were hurt before 6 p.m. on December 31, the moment when it became legal to set off fireworks in most municipalities.

During the New Year's period from 2019 into 2020, the plastic surgeons treated fifty victims. One year prior there were 44 people with serious injuries.

"It is worrying that we are now back at that level," said plastic surgeon Annekatrien van de Kar. During the coronavirus crisis, fireworks were subject to a national ban in an effort to add more stress to the crowded hospitals. When the year 2020 came to an end, eighteen people were seriously injured, and the following year the figure was almost forty.

Plastic surgeons often treat the most serious injuries, said Van de Kar. NVPC has been arguing for a total fireworks ban for several years. "Fireworks cause many unnecessarily young victims," ​​said Van de Kar. "If it were up to the NVPC, the government would ban consumer fireworks and everything would be done to tackle illegal fireworks."