The Dangers of Lawn Mowers

Some people enjoy cutting the lawn. Some give the job to their child or the neighbor. Who would think a common summer chore can be so dangerous? There are over 77,000 lawn mower injuries every year. Over 3,000 of them are in children. Some people even die after a lawn mower injury

I recently had a patient that lost part of his foot from a mower accident. It is devastating to see how much damage a blade can cause. After some research, I discovered exactly how much strength is behind the monster on wheels. Being hit by a mower blade is equivalent to being hit by a 21 pound object dropped from a height of 100 feet or 1.17 pounds traveling 232mph. This is three times the force of a 0.357 magnum gun!

Fortunately, these injuries are preventable, but we have to start taking our lawn mower chores more seriously. So many people choose to cut the grass bare foot. It feels good to have the grass between your toes but it is such a bad idea. First, there are a lot of things to step on especially in long grass where sharp object can be easily hiding. Secondly, the sharp mower blade can easily cut debris in the lawn into smaller sharper object. Though a shoe will not be strong enough to withstand the force of the blade, it will help decrease some severity of the injury.

Make sure you children understand the dangers of mowers. It is hard for a child to understand the complexity of a lawn mower. A push mower looks and sounds a lot like a vacuum. Since children are smaller, the injuries from a lawn mower are much more devastating than those seen adults. Adults will often lose toes or part of their foot, a child may lose their entire foot or part of their limb. Children are also more likely to put their hands near the blades and lose fingers, hands, and arms. There have also been many reports of accidentally running over children with the lawn mower. Remember to pay attention to what is behind you and tell your children they cannot come near you when you are cutting the grass.

These types of injuries are very prone to infections since the blade is so dirty. Luckily, early antibiotic treatments after such an injury cuts the rate of infection to a near minimum. If you suffer such an injury, it is imperative that you report to the ER immediately. The sooner you see a doctor, the less likely you will have complications from the injury.

My patient was lucky his injury was not more severe. He had 3 of his toes cut off with the blade and we then decided to remove his existing toes off to help him with ambulation and shoe fitting in the future. He is now walking normally; he is back to his normal job, and he is wearing normal shoes.