Physical Wellness

Paintball Hits May Be Harmful To Your Liver: Is Playing Paintball Hazardous To Your Health?

By Brian McNeill | Update Date: May 07, 2016 07:04 AM EDT

People have their own different ways of recreation mostly weighed according to the type of internal or external injuries that require them to be played with caution. It could range from sports to seemingly harmless war games such as paintball.

Apparently some of these do bring repercussions, mostly going unnoticed. Paintball for instance is considered harmful though it remains that the part of the body that they hit could end up returning dire consequences.

In England, an initial case that occurred back in August 2015 stymied doctors who were addressing abdominal pains being complained by an 18-year-old. His discomfort was supported by low-grade fever which initially showed symptoms of possible appendicitis. Take note at the time of diagnosis, the patient did not divulge that he had played paintball some days prior.

Dr. Joshua Luck, a resident surgeon at the North Middlesux University Hospital over in London scheduled the patient for emergency surgery though what they saw got them befuddled. Blood was coming out of the liver which led them to believe that they may have injured a blood vessel during the procedure. But it turns out the blood was coming out of the liver.

Such gave better explanation on why the abdominal pains were occurring and it turns out that the problem was the patient’s liver and not the appendix. Bleeding was stopped after the operation and it was only after that the doctors found out that the person had played paintball days prior. It turns out the man had been hit twice in the abdomen.

With no bruises on the skin to show near the liver, doctors were unable to consider it though the whole thing is not uncommon. Internal injuries could result from such where traumatic injuries could lead to symptoms like fever.

After two days, the man was discharged. But about three weeks later, the patient returned. An ultrasound done on him showed that his liver was pooled with blood. Fearing possible further damage, the patient underwent more tests. No further damage was found and the liver was seen as functioning normally. It turns out that the body was slowing reabsorbing the pooled blood.

"In the vast majority of blunt liver injuries, the body is able to heal itself over a period of weeks to months without the need for further" Luck explaied. “But sometimes, the healing may be slower than expected,” he added.

Paintball-related injuries are not new and the case mentioned is reportedly the fourth one that involved organ damage. Previous cases involve one tied up with kidney damage and two cases that involved damage to the penis or scrotum.

For those who are unaware, Paintball guns can fire the paintballs at velocities of 100 to 300 feet (30 to 90 meters) per second.

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