I’m an A&E doctor – eight common DIY mistakes that can put you in hospital

There’s something about DIY that makes otherwise cautious people surprisingly confident. People who wouldn’t dream of climbing on a roof at work will stand on tiptoes on the top of a ladder at home, or drill holes in a wall without knowing if there are electrical wires behind it. The sheer volume of DIY YouTube tutorials hasn’t helped, with people sometimes taking on jobs that are best left to professionals. And DIY accidents are far from trivial. NHS figures previously showed almost 4,800 hospital admissions in England in a single year following accidents involving drills and other power tools, alongside 6,372 admissions after falls from ladders. Falls remain one of the biggest causes of accidental injury. Analysis by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) found that falls accounted for 61 per cent of accident-related hospital admissions in England in 2022/23. Here, Dr Ai Lee, an emergency medicine doctor working in Kent, shares some of the DIY disasters she regularly sees the aftermath of. Shorts Falling off a ladder If I could persuade DIYers to take one risk more seriously, it would be ladders. A fall doesn’t need to be from a great height to cause significant injury. Landing awkwardly even from a few feet up can result in a broken wrist, ankle or hip, a shoulder injury or a head injury. Falling from greater height raises the possibility of spinal, pelvic and internal injuries. The other problem is what you hit on the way down. Radiators, furniture and the ladder itself can all turn a relatively short fall into a much more serious accident. I once had a patient who ripped his scalp open by hitting a shelf on a fall from his ladder, which was not a pretty sight. If you do need to access something at height, never stand on furniture instead of a proper ladder; don’t overreach. Moving a ladder into a better position takes 30 seconds. Recovering from a fracture takes considerably longer. The Stanley-knife slip People use utility knives for everything from opening boxes to cutting carpet, vinyl flooring and plasterboard. Often, they’ll hold the material with one hand and cut towards themselves with the other. When the blade slips, the hand holding the material is directly in its path. These aren’t always “just cuts”. A deep wound can damage tendons, nerves or blood vessels and potentially affect movement or sensation. Research into domestic and leisure tool accidents found the hand was injured in 60 per cent of cases, with Stanley knives the single tool most commonly involved. If you have a deep cut and suddenly can’t bend or straighten a finger normally, or you’ve lost sensation, that needs proper assessment. Go to A&E for wounds where bleeding cannot be stopped, sensation or movement is affected, or the wound is very large or deep. Something in your eye Drilling, grinding, hammering and cutting can send tiny fragments of metal, masonry, wood or tile towards your face at considerable speed. The speck can look insignificant, but the consequences aren’t necessarily so. I’ve seen corneal abrasions (scratches on the surface of the eye) caused by exposure to sawdust, which can lead to infection or permanent scarring if not treated. You should attend A&E if something hits your eye at high speed, an object pierces your eye, your vision changes, or you experience severe pain. Do not rub your eyes, however itchy they feel, because you could end up rubbing something even deeper in and making the injury worse. Power-tool injuries Circular saws, angle grinders, electric saws and other powered cutting tools are where DIY accidents can become devastating very quickly. Tools designed to slice through wood and metal make easy work of flesh and bone. The obvious danger is finger amputation, but we also see deep lacerations, fractures and extensive damage involving nerves, tendons and blood vessels from power tools. Power-tool hand injuries are disproportionately serious: one UK study found they were more than twice as likely as manual-tool injuries to require specialist referral and three times as likely to result in hospital admission. Hitting your thumb with a hammer It’s almost a cliché, but we genuinely see many hammer injuries. A heavy blow can cause bruising and swelling, blood underneath the nail and sometimes a fracture. More serious crushing injuries can damage the nail bed or fingertip. People sometimes assume that because they can still move the thumb or finger, it cannot be broken. Unfortunately, that’s not a reliable test. If a finger is badly swollen, deformed, extremely painful, or you can’t use it normally after a significant impact, seek medical advice. Chemical splashes while decorating DIY isn’t all hammers and drills. Paint stripper, solvents, strong cleaning products, adhesives and other chemicals can cause skin and eye injuries. The worst mistake after a splash is spending several minutes searching online for what to do while the chemical remains in contact with the eye. For strong chemicals in the eye, rinse continuously with plenty of clean water for at least 20 minutes and seek emergency medical help. Read the safety instructions before opening the product, rather than after the accident. Wear the recommended protection and keep the packaging available in case medical staff need to know exactly what you’ve been exposed to. The lawnmower accident We all think we’d use common sense around lawn mowers, but many people are fooled by plastic blades and believe this makes the machines less dangerous. I’ve seen people reach under their mower to clear grass or debris while it is still plugged in, shredding their fingers. Even when a mower appears to have stopped, you should never assume the blades are safe to touch until the machine has had the power turned off. Foot injuries can also happen if someone slips while mowing or operates machinery in unsuitable footwear. I’ve heard of toe amputations when people were mowing the lawn in flip-flops. Nails, screws and splinters A screw through a hand, a nail through a trainer or a large splinter embedded deeply in a finger can all result in a trip to A&E. The temptation is to yank an embedded object straight out, but don’t. With a significant penetrating injury, the object may be affecting deeper structures or blood vessels. Sometimes the object is plugging a tear in a blood vessel, and pulling it out can lead to significant blood loss. Leave the removal to the professionals.