Hoverboards, one of the hottest gifts for Christmas 2015, was also responsible for at least 70 injuries over the yearend holiday.
The hoverboard accidents all happened after Dec. 25, indicating that it was the "Back to the Future"-inspired hi-tech electronic toys that caused the spike in emergency cases in the U.S. Some of the victims required surgery, notes Dr. David Wong of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital in Houston, reports Houstonchronicle.
Wong, who says "Hoverboards haven't been around that long, but everyone bought them for Christmas," add that the hoverboard injuries were the first he encountered in three years of emergency room work. Actually, most hospitals in the Houston region do not have a formal category for hoverboard injuries, however, doctors decided to track the incidents after they noticed a spike.
In Houston area, the number was 14, but a Consumer Product Safety Commission report said 70 emergency room visits as of Thursday were recorded at different U.S. across the country due to hoverboard collisions and falls.
Wong says most of the injuries were damaged to hands, wrists and elbows which prompted Dr. Hannah Smith, emergency room doctor at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center to recommended use of protective gear similar to what roller bladers or skateboarders wear.
Patty Davis, spokeswoman of the commission, discloses that one ER visit was due to inhalation of smoke after the hoverboard burned. But the bulk of injuries were wrist injuries, notes Bruce Felsentein, ER doctor at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.
Former boxing champion Mike Tyson also fell from a hoverboard, while a Filipino Catholic priest was censured by his superiors for using a hoverboard while singing a Christmas carol during the Christmas Eve mass in Laguna province.