Paintball Causes Liver Damage? Teen Suffers Unusual Injury; Doctors Issue Warning On Paintball Safety

An 18-year-old boy in London suffered an unusual injury after playing paintball. Hospital workers thought he had appendicitis, but it turned out to be liver damage. Doctors are now warning kids and their parents about the dangers of playing paintball.

In August, the teenager, whose identity was not divulged, was rushed to the emergency room at the North Middlesex University Hospital as he manifested fever and abdominal pains. Dr. Joshua Luck was the attending surgeon for the kid's operation. But when his team cut him open, they saw that this appendix was okay. However, his liver was bursting blood. They were able to stop the bleeding and save the boy. Their findings were published in the BMJ Case Report.

Teenager Playing Paintball Had No Bruises

After the teen's operation, doctors learned that he had been playing paintball days before and was hit twice in the abdomen. He had no bruises around the area and didn't experience any pain until a few days later. Luck told Live Science that in some cases, trauma can arise from "seemingly innocuous events." It could also be accompanied by fever.

The teen was sent home after the operation, believing he was in the clear. However, he was back in the hospital three weeks later. Blood was pooling around his liver, which had doctors worried as he might have injured this again. But tests showed there was no other damage and the liver was functioning normally. His liver was also slowly absorbing the blood as a way of healing, but some livers can heal faster.

Paintball Liver Damage, Other Organ Damage

"This represents the first report of paintball related traumatic liver injury," the doctor said, per CBS News. But this is not the first time paintball has damaged organs. Previous injuries to the kidneys and scrotum have been reported before, according to the doctors in their report. This could be attributed to the speed of the paintball gun fires.

"Pellets with muzzle velocities of 100-300 feet per second are potentially harmful to ocular structures and also to the intra-abdominal solid organs," said the doctors, via ABC News. "Participants and physicians must both be aware of the possible dangers associated with this recreational sport."