My father died of pneumonia but had dementia, probably from his many schemes that lead to him falling off a ladder(he was only on the first step but never anchored it), ladder spun around the threw him down on his back - in a patch of cactus. Yep, had fractured his spine in 3 places - ambulance crew were full of cactus spine hairs, not dangerous but mighty irritating.
I had one enter the back of my hand and about a month later found a red spot on the other side where it was emerging. Got it out with a tweezer.
When I found a poor  dead sparrow impaled on the  spines, I pulled all  the cactus out and  let them rot at the  back of the yard.