Pumpkin Carving Safety Tips
Dr. Taruna Crawford shares pumpkin carving safety tips.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Crawford is Board Certified in Orthopedic Surgery and holds a Subspecialty Certificate in Hand Surgery from the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. She is also a Certified Independent Medical Examiner by the American Independent Medical Examiners.
Taruna Crawford, MD, CIME
Dr. Taruna Madhav Crawford comes to Riverside with several years of experience in her field. She received her Doctor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, located in Chicago, IL. Dr. Crawford then completed a General Surgery Internship and Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH. Additionally, Dr. Crawford gained additional experience through her Fellowship with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons through the Washing Health Policy Fellows in Rosemont, IL and a Fellowship in Hand Surgery at the Philadelphia Hand Center associated with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital located in Wynnewood, PA.Dr. Crawford is Board Certified in Orthopedic Surgery and holds a Subspecialty Certificate in Hand Surgery from the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. She is also a Certified Independent Medical Examiner by the American Independent Medical Examiners.
Transcription:
Pumpkin Carving Safety Tips
Introduction: Riverside Healthcare puts the health and wellness information you need, Well Within Reach.
Alyssa Diaz: Hello listeners, and welcome to the Well Within Reach podcast. I'm your host Alyssa Diaz. And today we will be covering the topic that's very relevant in the fall season, and that is pumpkin carving. And we'll be hearing from one of our Riverside Orthopedic Specialists, Dr. Taruna Crawford. Dr. Crawford, thanks for joining the podcast.
Dr. Crawford: Thanks for having me Alyssa.
Host: And let's first do a little bit of an introduction of you as an orthopedic surgeon at Riverside Orthopedic Specialists. And tell us a little bit about your background and training.
Dr. Crawford: Well, thank you very much for having me on this podcast. I completed my training back in 2009. I'm an orthopedic enhanced surgeon, which means that I take care of bones, tendons, and ligaments, and I did additional specialty training and board certification with hand surgery. I did most of my training here in the Chicago area with Northwestern for College and Medical School. I went to Cincinnati for my orthopedic surgery, residency training, and then did additional training in hand surgery at the Philadelphia Hand Centers. Before I moved back to the Chicago area.
Host: Thank you for the introduction. So it sounds like you have a lot of relevant experience for the topic we're covering and while pumpkin carving is a favorite pastime fall activity for a lot of families, we just want to make sure that enjoying decorating pumpkins during this time of year is also approached in a safe way. So Dr. Crawford's here to talk about some safety tips to prevent you and your family from injury. Many listeners may be thinking something like I know there's a safety risk when carving pumpkins, but I'm always careful. It won't happen to me. How many times each season do you hear that from a patient in your office?
Dr. Crawford: We actually see quite a few pumpkin carving hand injuries that occur around this time of year, kind of late September, early October, as everybody's preparing their houses for Halloween. And we see probably at least about three or four injuries each year, sometimes even more.
Host: That's pretty shocking. And something that can be prevented. So, let's talk about some tips that we can do to keep pumpkin carving safe at home.
Dr. Crawford: There's a number of things. You know, we definitely want Halloween to be a fun affair for everybody in the family and we want to involve young children. But certainly there should be more of a supervised activity. And so there are lots of things we can do to make Halloween safe and fun both at the same time. One of the things that you can do is making sure that when you go ahead and do your pumpkin carving, you want to carve the pumpkin in a very clean, dry, well lit area. You know, you want to make sure you get your pumpkin nice and clean, but you also want to dry everything off and not have moisture on your hands. You don't want the pumpkin to be wet and slippery as you're trying to carve. And certainly not your knife. You want to a good grip on your tools that you're using otherwise that could lead to some injuries.
And as I kind of referred to earlier, pumpkin carving should always have adult supervision. I know young children love carving pumpkins. They love making funny faces on them or scary faces. And, you know it could be a really enjoyable afternoon pastime, but you know, it only takes a second to have a mistake happen or an injury. And we don't want to disrupt the Halloween season and the fun associated with Halloween with a hand injury. And so having an adult available so that the adults can help with some of the harder components of pumpkin carving is always a safer bet to go.
Host: And of course, enhances that family bonding experience as well.
Dr. Crawford: Yeah, absolutely. And so the kids can certainly help out in a number of ways. Very young children can help out by helping to scoop the pumpkin seeds out and scoop the innards out of the pumpkin. Very young kids can also help by drawing the pattern on the pumpkin. And certainly if you want to be completely safe, you can, you know, nowadays it's also popular. You don't necessarily have to carve the pumpkin. You can even just decorate it with, you know, with markers or with other kinds of paints and stuff and just, you know, keep away from the carving altogether. But if you do want a carve, certainly leave the carving and the cutting to older children, teenagers, under adult supervision still, or just have the adults themselves do that. And you want to do the cutting in a way that it's more of a controlled fashion and small controlled strokes. You want to cut away from yourself so that the knife isn't slipping towards your hand or towards your finger.
Host: And there are such things as pumpkin carving kits out there, or a regular old kitchen knife, is there a difference in what does it matter?
Dr. Crawford: Sure. So you know, I think one of the myth is you always think if you want to get like something cut really nicely and easily that you want to get a nice, big sharp knife to get through that. And actually a sharper knife may not necessarily be the right choice for like a big knife. May not necessarily be the right choice because it can get kind of stuck in the thick part of the pumpkin. And so, you know, trying to force it out of the pumpkin where it stuck, it can kind of forcefully dislodge and you can end up cutting your finger or your hand. The other thing is, as you're stabilizing your pumpkin, sometimes if you're using a sharp or a big knife when you go to cut through it can kind of poke through the other side and poke your hand on the other side of where you're holding it steady. So these pumpkin carving kits they're available at, you know, most drug stores are available at grocery stores, and it usually comes with a kit with a bunch of smaller cerated, pumpkin saws that you can use, that allow you to cut more in like these short, smaller strokes. It's easier to control. They're less likely to get wedged in there. And if for some reason they do tend to poke through, they're not as sharp as far as causing more of a deep injury.
Host: Great. And then what are some other tips that we can share with our listeners?
Dr. Crawford: So, I mean, certainly just basically it's more of a matter of when you're carving your pumpkin, you just want to make sure you're controlled and having it under supervision while you're doing it. If you do happen to sustain a cut you want to clean off your finger. You want to apply pressure directly with a clean cloth or a clean bandage. And if you are not having, if the pressure is not controlling a bleeding, if you continue to have bleeding after about 10 or 15 minutes, or if you're feeling any kind of sensory disturbance where there's numbness or tingling, or if you feel like you can't move an area or it's a deep cut, then certainly the safest thing to do is go ahead and proceed to an emergency room or an immediate care to have a medical professional evaluate your injury.
Host: So, any doubt seek help.
Dr. Crawford: Correct.
Host: In closing, is there anything that we need to add for our listeners?
Dr. Crawford: No. I mean, I certainly, I'm not saying that you shouldn't do pumpkin carving or enjoy the holidays, but there's certainly lots of ways we can go ahead and enjoy the holidays, but still kind of avoid injuries that make you end up in a doctor's office and end up having to go through any kind of procedures or having to have medical care. As long as we take some of these safety tips and take some care as we're having fun.
Host: Dr. Crawford, thanks for joining us on the podcast to talk about pumpkin carving safety tips. And in closing, enjoy the seasons festivities like pumpkin carving, just do it safely. To learn more about this topic and others covered on the Well Within Reach podcast, visit us online at riversidehealthcare.org.
Pumpkin Carving Safety Tips
Introduction: Riverside Healthcare puts the health and wellness information you need, Well Within Reach.
Alyssa Diaz: Hello listeners, and welcome to the Well Within Reach podcast. I'm your host Alyssa Diaz. And today we will be covering the topic that's very relevant in the fall season, and that is pumpkin carving. And we'll be hearing from one of our Riverside Orthopedic Specialists, Dr. Taruna Crawford. Dr. Crawford, thanks for joining the podcast.
Dr. Crawford: Thanks for having me Alyssa.
Host: And let's first do a little bit of an introduction of you as an orthopedic surgeon at Riverside Orthopedic Specialists. And tell us a little bit about your background and training.
Dr. Crawford: Well, thank you very much for having me on this podcast. I completed my training back in 2009. I'm an orthopedic enhanced surgeon, which means that I take care of bones, tendons, and ligaments, and I did additional specialty training and board certification with hand surgery. I did most of my training here in the Chicago area with Northwestern for College and Medical School. I went to Cincinnati for my orthopedic surgery, residency training, and then did additional training in hand surgery at the Philadelphia Hand Centers. Before I moved back to the Chicago area.
Host: Thank you for the introduction. So it sounds like you have a lot of relevant experience for the topic we're covering and while pumpkin carving is a favorite pastime fall activity for a lot of families, we just want to make sure that enjoying decorating pumpkins during this time of year is also approached in a safe way. So Dr. Crawford's here to talk about some safety tips to prevent you and your family from injury. Many listeners may be thinking something like I know there's a safety risk when carving pumpkins, but I'm always careful. It won't happen to me. How many times each season do you hear that from a patient in your office?
Dr. Crawford: We actually see quite a few pumpkin carving hand injuries that occur around this time of year, kind of late September, early October, as everybody's preparing their houses for Halloween. And we see probably at least about three or four injuries each year, sometimes even more.
Host: That's pretty shocking. And something that can be prevented. So, let's talk about some tips that we can do to keep pumpkin carving safe at home.
Dr. Crawford: There's a number of things. You know, we definitely want Halloween to be a fun affair for everybody in the family and we want to involve young children. But certainly there should be more of a supervised activity. And so there are lots of things we can do to make Halloween safe and fun both at the same time. One of the things that you can do is making sure that when you go ahead and do your pumpkin carving, you want to carve the pumpkin in a very clean, dry, well lit area. You know, you want to make sure you get your pumpkin nice and clean, but you also want to dry everything off and not have moisture on your hands. You don't want the pumpkin to be wet and slippery as you're trying to carve. And certainly not your knife. You want to a good grip on your tools that you're using otherwise that could lead to some injuries.
And as I kind of referred to earlier, pumpkin carving should always have adult supervision. I know young children love carving pumpkins. They love making funny faces on them or scary faces. And, you know it could be a really enjoyable afternoon pastime, but you know, it only takes a second to have a mistake happen or an injury. And we don't want to disrupt the Halloween season and the fun associated with Halloween with a hand injury. And so having an adult available so that the adults can help with some of the harder components of pumpkin carving is always a safer bet to go.
Host: And of course, enhances that family bonding experience as well.
Dr. Crawford: Yeah, absolutely. And so the kids can certainly help out in a number of ways. Very young children can help out by helping to scoop the pumpkin seeds out and scoop the innards out of the pumpkin. Very young kids can also help by drawing the pattern on the pumpkin. And certainly if you want to be completely safe, you can, you know, nowadays it's also popular. You don't necessarily have to carve the pumpkin. You can even just decorate it with, you know, with markers or with other kinds of paints and stuff and just, you know, keep away from the carving altogether. But if you do want a carve, certainly leave the carving and the cutting to older children, teenagers, under adult supervision still, or just have the adults themselves do that. And you want to do the cutting in a way that it's more of a controlled fashion and small controlled strokes. You want to cut away from yourself so that the knife isn't slipping towards your hand or towards your finger.
Host: And there are such things as pumpkin carving kits out there, or a regular old kitchen knife, is there a difference in what does it matter?
Dr. Crawford: Sure. So you know, I think one of the myth is you always think if you want to get like something cut really nicely and easily that you want to get a nice, big sharp knife to get through that. And actually a sharper knife may not necessarily be the right choice for like a big knife. May not necessarily be the right choice because it can get kind of stuck in the thick part of the pumpkin. And so, you know, trying to force it out of the pumpkin where it stuck, it can kind of forcefully dislodge and you can end up cutting your finger or your hand. The other thing is, as you're stabilizing your pumpkin, sometimes if you're using a sharp or a big knife when you go to cut through it can kind of poke through the other side and poke your hand on the other side of where you're holding it steady. So these pumpkin carving kits they're available at, you know, most drug stores are available at grocery stores, and it usually comes with a kit with a bunch of smaller cerated, pumpkin saws that you can use, that allow you to cut more in like these short, smaller strokes. It's easier to control. They're less likely to get wedged in there. And if for some reason they do tend to poke through, they're not as sharp as far as causing more of a deep injury.
Host: Great. And then what are some other tips that we can share with our listeners?
Dr. Crawford: So, I mean, certainly just basically it's more of a matter of when you're carving your pumpkin, you just want to make sure you're controlled and having it under supervision while you're doing it. If you do happen to sustain a cut you want to clean off your finger. You want to apply pressure directly with a clean cloth or a clean bandage. And if you are not having, if the pressure is not controlling a bleeding, if you continue to have bleeding after about 10 or 15 minutes, or if you're feeling any kind of sensory disturbance where there's numbness or tingling, or if you feel like you can't move an area or it's a deep cut, then certainly the safest thing to do is go ahead and proceed to an emergency room or an immediate care to have a medical professional evaluate your injury.
Host: So, any doubt seek help.
Dr. Crawford: Correct.
Host: In closing, is there anything that we need to add for our listeners?
Dr. Crawford: No. I mean, I certainly, I'm not saying that you shouldn't do pumpkin carving or enjoy the holidays, but there's certainly lots of ways we can go ahead and enjoy the holidays, but still kind of avoid injuries that make you end up in a doctor's office and end up having to go through any kind of procedures or having to have medical care. As long as we take some of these safety tips and take some care as we're having fun.
Host: Dr. Crawford, thanks for joining us on the podcast to talk about pumpkin carving safety tips. And in closing, enjoy the seasons festivities like pumpkin carving, just do it safely. To learn more about this topic and others covered on the Well Within Reach podcast, visit us online at riversidehealthcare.org.