Michigan ERs Brace for Fourth of July Weekend Injuries

This Fourth of July weekend is already arriving with extra sparklers because America turns 250, which is awesome until your cousin decides to play chicken with a Roman candle. The level-headed team at Holland Hospital says summer ER visits around the holiday often involve fireworks, dehydration, grilling burns, and water-related injuries.

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Fireworks were linked to an estimated 9,700 ER-treated injuries in 2023, with 66% happening in the weeks around the Fourth. So yes, your nurse neighbor would love for you to enjoy freedom without turning your hand into a cautionary tale your neighbors tell their children next year.

Michigan Fireworks, Grills, and Lake Day Chaos

green, red, and white fireworks on sky at nighttime

The usual ER party crashers are burns from fireworks, sparklers, grills, and fire pits. Meyer & Associates also lists sprains, strains, broken bones, heat illness, dehydration, and food-borne illness among the leading reasons for a trip to the ER.

How Michiganders Can Stay Out of the ER

Of course, using common sense when lighting fireworks, giving a hefty right-of-way to grills and bonfires, wearing a helmet, hydrating, and chilling your potato salad are also perfectly reasonable ways to avoid a trip.

brown wooden dock near calm body of water surrounded by trees

Temple Health says summer ER visits spike as temperatures rise and people spend more time outside. With temperatures in the Mitten State expected to reach the upper 80s and lower 90s through the holiday weekend, one can only imagine what doctors and nurses will face.

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If you're hoping to avoid a long wait and a copay, be sure to keep an eye on kids near water, fire, and fireworks. Drink water before you feel like you need to, refrigerate food, and leave the big boom fireworks to people with permits.