The DIY projects putting thousands of Victorians in hospital

Fancy a home or garden DIY project? Experts reveal what to look out for to avoid being hospitalised.

Thousands of Victorians have been injured while trying to complete a DIY project in their home or garden, new data has revealed.

DIY mishaps send 12 Victorians to an emergency department every week, new data has revealed, with ladders now harming more people than angle grinders.

More than 3600 patients were injured over a five-year period after a DIY accident, according to analysis of the state’s public hospital data, including more than 640 in the 2022-23 financial year.

The numbers have prompted a top trauma hospital to urge Victorians to be careful with power and garden tools, with some patients suffering life-altering injuries.

Monash University’s Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit found 3626 patients were injured by an angle grinder, ladder fall, lawnmower, powered saw or powered drill between July 2018 and June 2023.

Angle grinders are responsible for injuring thousands of Victorians. Picture: Rob McKell

The dataset, which excluded work accidents and children, found injuries from DIY projects – which rose to record levels of 832 in 12 months during Covid – were rampant across Victoria over the five financial years. Yearly accidents rose from 621 in 2018-19, to 644 in 2022-23, and men made up almost 90 per cent of the 3626 patients injured across all five years.

The worst financial year – 2020-21 – included almost 300 angle grinder accidents, more than 250 ladder falls and 109 lawnmower incidents.

Angle grinders were the most common offender across the five years – injuring more than 1260 people in total – and the top category every year until 2022-23.

That financial year – the most recent available data – saw 210 ladder falls (up from 171 in 2018-19) compared to 189 angle grinder mishaps.

Alfred Hospital emergency physician Dr Panagiota Kakridas said the rise in ladder accidents was concerning because patients typically suffered more injuries, leading to longer hospital stays.

“They might get a head injury and also broken ribs or a spine injury,” she said.

“People who are injured from an angle grinder or a power drill, it’s usually isolated to one arm or we’ve had a few where it’s been an injury directly to the abdomen. Falling from a small height can be just as dangerous.”

There has been a rise in ladder accidents.

Patients who fell from ladders typically had longer hospital stays, Dr Kakridas said.

The VISU data showed 60 per cent of ladder fall patients were aged 50 to 74, more than 40 per cent suffered a fracture and one in 10 had a head injury.

Lawnmower accidents jumped from 48 in 2018-19 to more than 100 in 2019-20 and hovering around 110 ever since.

Powered saw and power drills – which rose to highs of 95 over lockdown – recorded figures in 2022-2023 that were similar to pre-Covid numbers in the 60s and low 70s.

The most common injury across all DIY cases was an “open wound” (more than 1100 patients), while almost 800 were categorised as “foreign body”. There were 91 patients who suffered a “traumatic amputation”.