Freedom. Hot dogs. Amputations. It's July Fourth in America, and U.S. hospital visits are about to skyrocket like so many Roman candles. Between 2000 and 2010, U.S. American emergency rooms treated an estimated 97,500 patients for fireworks-related injuries, ranging from burns to blindness to the total loss of fingers and forearms. It's "an annual trail of disaster following the glorious [holiday]," as one doctor put it way back in 1910 — and, as long as people keep blowing things up, it's here to stay. In the spirit of freedom and science, here are some of the strangest fireworks injuries ever recorded.
