MANILA — A 12-year-old boy and a 62-year-old man lost part of their fingers on Day 5 of the monitoring of firecracker-related injuries this holiday season.
“Two additional blast injuries with amputation were reported and total is now three,” the Department of Health (DOH) said in its Aksyon: Paputok Injury Reduction 2017 Report No. 5 issued Tuesday.
The 12-year old boy from Talisay, Negros Occidental was taken to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, while the 62-year-old man from Quezon City was rushed to the East Avenue Medical Center.
Both were lighting a Whistle Bomb.
On Monday, Christmas Day, a 29-year-old man from Pangasinan lost two fingers on his right hand due to an improvised noisemaker called Boga.
The latest count as of 6 a.m. Dec. 26 shows 15 new firecracker-related injuries, bringing to 29 the total number of such injuries recorded since December 21.
“This is 81 (74 percent) cases lower than the same time period last year,” read the report, adding that no death, firecracker ingestion or stray bullet injury has so far been reported.
Of the 29 victims, 27 were male. The youngest was an 11-month old infant and the oldest is the 62-year-old man. Some 22 of the cases occurred on the streets.
Of the total, 24 sustained blast injuries that did not require amputation, affecting the hand, head, eye, neck, chest, knee and legs.
Some 19 of the victims were lighting the illegal firecracker Piccolo. The others were handling the Boga, Whistle Bomb, Luces, Pop-pop, Sparkler and Bawang.