Doctors Warn Of Dangers Of Children And Folding Chairs

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – An accident involving a child and a folding chair is prompting a warning to parents about household dangers.

Doctors at Children's Hospital claim the partial amputation of a finger is not that uncommon.

This all happened Wednesday night and when paramedics arrived on Spring Street in Arlington what they found was a child who's tip of their fingertip had been cut off by a folding chair.

They bagged the tip in ice and put the child in an ambulance and went to Children's Hospital, where they've seen this kind of thing before.

"Almost every single shift I see a child with some type of fingertip problem either part missing, it's partially amputated or completely amputated or crushed," said Dr. Ray Petitti.

Dr. Petitti is the Associate Chief of Children's Hospital ER and says the doctors there have become pretty adept at reattaching finger pieces with good results. And they say yes, folding chairs are often the culprits.

Doors in homes and cars are also common finger crushers.

"You would never think of certain things as being dangerous, but they can, so when you have an infant or toddler and they are starting to explore things around them and they don't know how things work, so they might crawl up on a folding chair and that folding chair collapses around them – especially with little fingers," said Petitti.

But you don't have to throw out your folding chairs – just keep an eye on your children, says Dr. Petitti.

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