World Cup fans matched celebration with accidents and emergencies

WORLD CUP fever might have gripped the nation last summer, but it also caused heart attacks, alcohol-fuelled assaults, falls and dog bites.

In an analysis of A&E attendances related to the World Cup, 47 people were found to have sought treatment for a variety of conditions in University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) and 81% of these were within 24 hours of the match.

According to a report by John O’Donnell of UCHG Emergency Department, the majority of attendees were the victims of assaults or falls, and alcohol was a factor in more than half of all the cases.

Some unusual cases, however, included:

Two patients developed chest pain while watching a match - one of whom was having a heart attack.

A man mistakenly drank white spirits thinking it was water while celebrating a goal.

A woman was bitten on the hand by her dog when it joined in her excitement when Ireland scored.

A man sustained a deep cut to his hand when a large mirror fell off a pub wall as the crowd jumped up and down celebrating yet another Ireland goal.

Mr O’Donnell said the reason he and AP Mattick and R Mehta (all ok)

undertook the analysis was because little has been written of the effect of major televised sporting events on emergency departments. He pointed out 1.7 million people, or 53% of the population, tuned in to watch the Ireland versus Spain match.

With regard to the timing of the World Cup related attendances, he said that 38 of the 47 patients (81%) attended within 24 hours of an Irish game. Only one of the four matches involving the Irish squad had an early morning kick-off of 7.30am Irish time. The other three started at 12.30pm.

The research, published yesterday in the Irish Medical Journal, found the morning game was associated with fewer related attendances to the emergency department in comparison to the afternoon matches. Of those needing treatment following the morning match, none related to alcohol.

The emergency department at UCHG is one of the largest in the country, seeing around 60,000 patients per year. During the World Cup, doctors and nurses working at the emergency department were asked to record any patient whose attendance was thought to be associated with the televised event.

The link between their attendance and the World Cup had to be strong, and was volunteered by the patient or identified through questioning. The study covered the duration of the finals, from 12.30pm on May 31 to 1.45pm on June 30.