Research Review

Holiday Cocktails That May Land You in the Emergency Department

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens go together and are celebrated favorite things, but according to a Loyola trauma chief, there are some things that just do not go together and are a recipe for disaster.

“Kids and light cords, cars and cell phones or alcohol and anything, are just a few of my least favorite things,” says Thomas Esposito, MD, MPH, chief of the division of trauma, surgical critical care and burns in the department of surgery at Loyola University Medical Center. “The mild weather has delayed the traditional snow blower and snow shoveling injuries, but the Christmas and New Year holidays still bring in falls from ladders, electrical outlet zaps and alcohol-fueled everything.”

Esposito is asked so often about what he sees in the Loyola Level 1 Trauma Center that he has actually created an extensive list. “Santa has his naughty list and so do I,” Esposito says. “We trauma surgeon ‘mixologists’ have our list of time-tested recipes for disaster that we see year in and year out.”

Among the things that Esposito says do not mix are:

• Alcohol and Anything
• Bar brawls and Bottles
• Guns and Gatherings
• Cars and Cell phones
• Candles and Cats
• Little fingers and Electrical sockets
• Ladders and Lights
• Toy parts and Little tongues
• Kids and Cabinets
• Knives and Lives
• TVs and Tots
• Roofs and Ice
• Flames and Fleece
• Drinking and Decorating
• Pets and Poisons
• Cooking and College Football
• Space Heaters and Enclosed Spaces
• Kids and Light cords
• Candles and Champagne
• Shovels and Out-of Shape Shovelers
• Hands and Snow blowers
• Knives and Knuckles
• Heat and Bare Feet
• Texting and Tree topping
• Reefer and Roofs
• Drivers and Distraction
• Faces, Fingers and Fireworks

— Source: Loyola University Health System