Getting Snagged Could Land You in the People Catcher’s Club
5/1/2024
Wendy Lizak, RN, Howard Young Medical Center Emergency Department
For over 30 years,
the People Catcher’s Club displays at Aspirus Eagle River Hospital (AERH) and
Howard Young Medical Center (HYMC) in Woodruff have been collecting lures
impaled in anglers. It’s one club you don’t want to belong to.
The display cases
are located in the emergency departments and have been inheriting large and
small fishing lures since 1993. “We always tell them you are not the first one,
you won't be the last one,” said Wendy Lizak, RN, HYMC Emergency Department
(ED), when asked if people are embarrassed when they arrive at the ED with a
hook stuck on their body. “Our room for removal (at HYMC) for those fishhooks
is right next to our people catcher's cabinet. They feel a lot better when they
see how many lures we have in there and how many stories we have.”
Unfortunately,
getting hooked while fishing is no laughing matter as the emergency department
has seen sharp objects get stuck all over the body. “The most common injuries
we see in our ER from fishhook impalements are scalps, cheeks, eyes, and
fingers,” added Lizak. “It's more when the little kids are fishing with mom and
dad, and they go to cast for the first time and they usually catch mom or dad
or brother or sister. Eyes are the worst. Through the scalp can be a bit of a
conundrum depending on the size of the lure and the kind of hook that's on
there.”
Before the displays
were created, AERH providers would hang the lures from a ceiling tile which was
mounted above a door. At the end of the year, they would take the hooks off the
board and throw them in the “sharps” container. Aspirus MedEvac Paramedic Dan
Halverson built the first People Catcher’s Club cabinet in 1993 because he
wanted to showcase the impressive baits. “I started collecting them, created
the cabinet for the hooks, and even more people were willing to leave them for
the display,” he said. “We’ve had people who were hooked, or had a family
member hooked, that have come back to look at the board or take pictures of it.
I think the idea has really stuck.”
The experienced
staff in the Aspirus emergency departments in Eagle River and Woodruff have
removed hundreds of fishhooks and lures from anglers and the removal technique
varies depending on the severity of the injury. Generally, it involves clipping
an end off the fishhook, pulling the straight edge of the barb out, providing
wound care and cleaning. Making sure your tetanus is up to date, some
antibiotics if needed and keeping the wound clean and dry are the final steps.
There’s a story that
comes with every hook removed and everyone at the Howard Young Medical Center
ED has heard the legendary tale about the twice hooked angler. “The legend's
been told, the gentleman was out musky fishing, got the musky lure caught in his
finger. We always ask our patients, ‘Do you want to donate it to our people
catcher cabinet or would you like to take those lures home?’ He opted to take
the lure home, was upset about the whole thing, went out, tossed the lure on
his seat and then ended up sitting on it and turned around and came right back
in to have it removed again. Then he donated it.”
Anglers who have had
hooks removed are given an Aspirus stress ball shaped like a bobber and a
People Catchers Club Official Member Card to showcase their induction into the
exclusive club. It’s a humbling and humorous reminder to anglers that they’re
not the only ones this unfortunate injury happens to. The HYMC emergency
department removed 93 fishhooks last fishing season and 85 so far this season.
That’s over 400 hooks removed from anglers in the last five years.
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