[ricki]

Something else I learned during the visit to the ER of the hospital. In the thinly curtained bed next to mine was an 18 year old guy with a fractured neck. I recall he fractured C5, C7 (?) and herniated a disk. Laying around for about 4 hours allowed me to learn a lot about what this young fellow experienced and what he had to look forward to. He was in a skiing competition and had just jumped off a cornice and promptly slammed in hard, burying himself almost up to his waist head first. As young as he was he was a trained ski patroller. He felt some tingling in his fingers which he didn't think was right. Despite the pain, disorientation and being submerged in snow he elected not to move. This one act was credited by the doctors, at least three of them at different times that I overheard, for sparing him likely paralysis. I understood as of that moment that no serious nerve impairment had been detected much less paralysis.

Moral: If you hit hard and suspect serious injury perhaps along your spinal column, don't move. Easier said than done right? Still, if you think about it in advance you might have a better shot at actually doing this. I can think of some kiteboarding injuries where the kiter got up and tried to walk it off likely resulting in some nerve impairment and paralysis. If you attend a kiter that took a good hit against something hard, you might do them a favor by helping them stay quite and motionless until help arrives. I heard a story a couple of weeks ago about a windsurfer that suffered a neck fracture hitting his board. A doctor/windsurfer/kitesurfer came up to help and worked to hold the guys head motionless in the water for about 20 minutes until help arrived. Not easy but movement can really alter your prospects in the future. Good stuff to think about just in case something like this happens.