While injuries from car accidents and playground falls are relatively common, it turns out that Americans can be pretty, well, creative when it comes to getting hurt. From encounters with fish (yes, really) to walking into walls, we’ve got the 411 on some of the strangest injuries you’ll hopefully never experience.
Unusual injuries
The health care transparency company Amino pored through health care claims in their database representing more than 220 million Americans to see what unique physical injuries popped up. While getting bitten by a dog is not too wacky (they note 162,000 instances), there are plenty of painful wounds that might fall under the “uncommon” category. Here’s a roundup of some of the more unusual injuries experienced by residents of the good ol’ USA. Try not to cringe.
- Bitten by cat: 55,100 (notably less common that dog bites)
- Walked into furniture: 25,500
- Walked into a wall: 17,200
- Cat scratch: 15,200
- Accidentally bitten by human: 10,600
- Contact with workbench tool: 8.900
- Accidentally kicked by human: 8,700
- Contact with garden power tool or hand tool: 8,300
- Contact with scissors: 4,900
- Contact with sewing needle: 4,400
- Lid of can entering through skin: 3,700
- Struck by horse: 3,500
- Contact with power mower: 3,400
- Contact with nail gun: 2,200
- Accidentally scratched by human: 1,800
- Struck by cow: 1,700
- Ring too tight: 1,700
- Bitten by rat: 1,400
- Crushed, pushed or stepped on by crowd or human stampede: 1,300
- Bitten by squirrel: 900
- Bitten by mouse: 900
- Bitten by horse: 700
- Bitten by raccoon: 600
- Contact with paper cutter: 400
- Walked into lamppost: 400
- Paper entering through skin: 300
- Bitten by pig: 300
- Bitten by parrot: 200
- Struck by fish: 200
- Pecked by chicken: 100
- Bitten by alligator: 100
- Explosion of bicycle tire: 100
- Rubber band causing constriction:
- Bitten by macaw:
- Pecked by turkey:
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Sports-related injuries
In addition to all of these animal misadventures, walking into things and being accidentally injured by our fellow humans (and don’t forget the paper cutter… eek!), there are a few other categories for us to consider. How about sportsball? Interestingly, the numbers vary based on season — so right now is the prime time to get injured by a football. Let’s take a look.
- Struck by basketball: 14,800
- Struck by baseball: 13,400
- Struck by soccer ball: 11,300
- Striking against or by other sports equipment: 10,900
- Struck by football: 10,500
- Struck by softball: 8.300
- Striking against or struck by football helmet: 5,100
- Struck by hit or thrown ball: 4,100
- Struck by volleyball: 3,500
- Struck by skate blades: 200
Weapon-related injuries
Then we have a slew of injuries caused by accidental discharge of weapons, including:
- Accidental discharge from unspecified firearm: 20,600
- Accidental handgun discharge: 1,500
- Accidental discharge of shotgun: 600
- Accidental discharge of hunting rifle: 200
- Accidental discharge of machine gun:
While no injury is amusing, particularly a serious one (yes, even being pecked by a turkey can be traumatizing), it’s nonetheless interesting to see all the trouble we can get into just by walking around our house, wearing rings, hanging out in the great outdoors, playing sports and being around firearms.
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