Revealed: The bizarre accidents that ended up in Royal Sussex County A & E (From The Argus)

Revealed: The bizarre accidents that ended up in Royal Sussex County A & E

9:52am Saturday 5th January 2013 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter

Revealed: The bizarre accidents that ended up in Royal Sussex County A & E

Being caught on a fish hook and swallowing a battery are just two of the bizarre reasons people visited the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton last year.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that during 2012, when doctors and nurses treated more than 158,000 people in accident and emergency, there were some strange illnesses and peculiar ailments.

An exhaustive list of the quirkiest reasons people visit casualty has been released, including on one occasion a person visited A&E at Brighton having eaten a coin.

On another occasion a person had swallowed a battery.

People also visited having been caught on a fish hook, bitten by a snake and gnawed on by a human.

Another case involved a person who had ingested petrol while another had overdosed on poisonous plants – like in Littlehampton this year when a teenager ate the plant devil’s snare from the road side, stripped naked, stole a bike and cycled among traffic.

Some people went to casualty suffering from sunburn while others have also had fingers, fingertips and limbs amputated in accidents.

A Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust spokeswoman said: “In 2012 our emergency departments treated more than 158,000 people with a huge number of conditions, illnesses and injuries.

“Please help keep our emergency departments free for serious and life-threatening conditions, for common or long standing health problems please see a pharmacist, your GP or go to the walk in centre on Queens Road near Brighton Station.”

Last year we revealed that in one year more than 2,400 people ended up staying in A&E for between four and 12 hours after a decision was taken to admit them as an emergency.