05/31/12 With the unofficial kick off the summer being the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Emergency Medical personnel want to send a warning to those grilling out.
The summer months are peak season for outdoor grilling. As more families begin to barbeque outside, healthcare providers are warning of grill-related injuries. In 2010, over 18,000 people were sent to emergency rooms across the nation because grilling-related accidents. While burns are the leading cause of injury, grills can also give rise to some unusual clinical presentations.
A recently published article detailed 6 cases of people who visited the emergency room complaining of abdominal pain and painful swallowing. All had eaten grilled meat within the past 24 hours, and the meat had been prepared on grilled cleaned with wire brushes. X-ray evidence confirmed that these patients had ingested wire bristles from the brushes. In two patients the bristles went through the small intestine. In another, the wire bristle perforated the stomach and went into the liver. Physicians found the bristles in the other three patients’ necks.
