Splat! Paintball Blow Causes Liver Damage in Teen
(LiveScience)- A game of paintball had an unfortunate ending when a teen in England wound up needing liver surgery after being struck in the abdomen, according to a new report of the young man’s case.
The injury was the first instance of a person suffering liver damage from playing paintball, the doctorswho treated the teen wrote in their report of his case, published May 5 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
The 18-year-old went to the emergency room in August 2015 because of abdominal pain
and a low-grade fever, said Dr. Joshua Luck, a resident surgeon at North Middlesex University Hospital in London, who treated the patient and is the lead author of the case report.
Based on the patient’s symptoms, the doctors there diagnosed him with appendicitis. (He hadn’t mentioned to the doctors that he had played paintball two days prior.) They scheduled him to have emergency surgery, according to the report.