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.

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

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