Howie Mandel recently shared the details of a gruesome injury his wife su f fered while under the influence of alcohol − and it’s an important reminder about the prevalence and danger of alcohol-related injuries.

The “America’s Got Talent” judge, 68, appeared on “Live With Kelly and Mark” where he discussed how a Las Vegas night out in February with his wife, Terry Mandel, went wrong. Mandel and his wife have been married for over 40 years.

“We partied. It was too much. She was tipsy. I did not know that, and in the middle of the night she got up and, I don’t know where she was headed, but she headed into the wall. She fell and hit the wainscoting,” Mandel recalled of the incident. “She hit that as she went down. She slipped, went down, hit that on her eye, fell on the floor, and broke her cheek.”

Injuries like Terry’s are, unfortunately, not uncommon. Of the health outcomes alcohol is associated with, people under age 40 are most likely to experience injuries, both intentional and unintentional, Dana Bryazka, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine previously told USA TODAY.

“The rates of cancers and heart disease are generally low in this population,” Bryazka previously said. “Taking a disease-rate weighted average of the risk of alcohol use, we found that even relatively low levels of alcohol use are harmful to young people.”

Howie Mandel says he saw his wife’s skull after gory injury

During Mandel’s “Live With Kelly and Mark” segment, producers flashed an image of Mandel’s wife, revealing a dark purple bruise under her eye and a two-inch cut on her forehead.

Mandel said he “freaked out” in the moment because “there’s blood everywhere” and his attempts at stopping the situation from getting worse were not panning out. “I saw her head, and you could actually see her skull. It opened up. I freaked.”

The comedian said he called hotel staff, who sent up multiple security guards, rather than medical assistance, to their room. He joked that the optics did not look good, especially because prior to his wife’s fall, she had “Snapped” playing on the TV.

More:Howie Mandel says he saw his wife Terry’s skull after drunken fall

Terry was brought to the hospital and has since made a full recovery, according to Mandel. “She is absolutely perfect. There’s not a scar. She’s beautiful,” he said, as a picture of the pair confirmed her visible injuries were gone.

“People said, ‘What happened?’ and she said, ‘Vegas,'” he quipped.

Alcohol-induced injuries are a real problem. We need to talk about it.

Alcohol-induced injuries are a serious issue, experts previously told USA TODAY, particularly among young adults and others who otherwise may not think drinking could cause immediate long-term harm to their health.

According to the Alcohol Rehab Guide, over 5.2 million people die around the world each year due to alcohol-related injuries, and 3.2% of a deaths are caused by alcohol. A study published in the National Library of Medicine in 2021 said the majority of unintentional injuries due to alcohol are road and transport injuries.

More:How long does it take alcohol to leave your system? It depends on these factors.

The proportion of Americans consuming harmful amounts of alcohol is outranked only by countries such as Australia and in Western Europe.

“Injuries and cancers make up a larger share than in other regions, so the safe amount of alcohol is relatively low,” Bryazka previously told USA TODAY. “The second reason is that a large proportion of the U.S. population consumes alcohol, and when they do, it is a lot.”

It can take a while for the effects of alcohol to wear off. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), an abundance of factors contribute to how long alcohol stays in your system. Healthline.com says how long alcohol stays in your system is dependent upon your age, weight, whether you’ve eaten food recently, medications, liver disease and the time between drinks. The NIAAA estimates that one drink would be metabolized and out of your system after three hours, two drinks after slightly over four hours, three drinks by six hours and four drinks by seven.

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