Vizcaya man is 1st stray bullet victim

A man from Nueva Vizcaya became the first victim of stray bullet-related injuries in the Department of Health’s (DOH) monitoring of holiday injuries as the country prepares to welcome the New Year.

In its latest report, the DOH said a 27-year-old man from Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya, was the first case of stray bullet-related injury. He is confined at the Veterans Regional Hospital.

The man sustained a gunshot wound to the head inside his house on Dec. 25, the health department said.

As of Thursday, the DOH had recorded 105 firecracker-related injuries, a figure which is 42 percent lower than the five-year average and 36 percent lower than the count in the same period last year.

In this year’s monitoring, the DOH noted that 97 of the victims of firecracker-related injuries were males, while 79 were children below the age of 15.

The victims’ ages ranged from as young as 3 years old to as old as 63 years old, the agency said.

The DOH added that 84 of the cases were blast injuries without any amputation and that 77 involved victims younger than 15 years old.

In addition, 83 of the cases involved active users of firecrackers, of whom 65 were below 15 years old.

Piccolo remains the top cause of firecracker-related injuries with 61 cases, followed by boga with 10 cases, and whistle bomb with six.