With the arrival of Christmas Eve on Thursday, about two billion Christians around the world, Slovakia including, began their Christmas celebrations. These lasted until Boxing Day, also known as St. Stephens's day on Saturday, Dec. 26. While most people spend these calm days with their families, paramedics can hardly relax during Christmas, as they have around 30 percent more interventions than on ordinary days, spokesperson of the Falck medical emergency service Alena Lacyková-Krčová has told TASR. A total of 365 people on Christmas Eve looked up emergency services on the network of hospitals belonging under the University Hospital in Bratislava. "Around one in 15 patients had typical Christmas health problems," said hospital spokesperson Petra Stano Maťašovská, adding that digestive complications were the most prevalent. "They were followed by excessive use of alcohol, mostly resulting in injuries, while fish bones got stuck in the throats of nine people. It's interesting to note that several patients got up from the festive dinner table and went to hospital claiming that they had fish bones stuck in throats, even though it emerged later that they hadn't any," said the hospitals spokesperson on behalf of the traditional Slovak Christmas menu, which consists of fried carp fish and potato salad.
Christmas Eve is also the year's busiest day for phone operators, as Slovaks on Christmas Eve this year again sent more text messages and made more telephone calls than usual. This year, Slovak Telekom's customers sent more than 11.5 million text messages - five times as many as on ordinary days and 3.5 million more than on Christmas Day last year.
Zuzana Botiková Foto: TASR
