A top surgeon in metro Atlanta says he sees an uptick in calls after the Fourth of July – not just because of runners from the Peachtree Road Race, but because of firecrackers.

“I’ve seen several people who’ve lost multiple fingers,” Orthopedic hand surgeon Dr. Craig Weil tells WSB.

When it comes to who is getting hurt by fireworks, you could probably guess a chunk of the demographic.

“About 25 percent of injuries, at least, are boys under 15,” Dr. Weil says.

To listen to a clip from Veronica Waters’ interview with Dr. Weil, click HERE.

In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says males ages 10-19 accounted for 61 percent of the fireworks-related hospitalizations in 2016. The year before, men and boys made up 76 percent of those hospitalizations.

Weil adds that both minor and devastating injuries are often prompted by bravado, and he is surprised at what some ‘wannabe’ daredevils think is all in good fun.

“You’re always shocked when someone says, ‘Yeah, I thought I would see what it was like to hold a firecracker between my fingers,’” Weil says. “And you see the blast injuries that lose part of their fingertips, or lose the skin, or have deep burns from these firecrackers that they held to show off or whatever. It can be pretty remarkable that people would consider that even a possibility.

“Or they've thrown fireworks at their friend and they've injured them somewhere.”

The most common fireworks injuries are to the finger, wrist, or hand. Weil says people can suffer burns and eye injuries from fireworks injuries, too, leading to shrapnel and paper embedded deep in their skin and tissue.

Weil says many cases require multiple surgeries and hospitalizations which often cost someone tens of thousands of dollars a pop – no pun intended – to salvage fingers or keep patients from living without a thumb.

"It would be something you'd have to have reconstructed, and that's why sometimes we have to do toe-to-hand transfers and so forth," Weil says. "They can be quite functional, but that's not something you want to contend with.”

Fireworks were blamed in 11,100 hospital visits in 2016, resulting in four deaths.