[ricki]

Thank you for your input Jane. There is a lot of good information coming out of this inquiry.

Here are some comments from an orthopaedic surgeon with some experience with neurological injuries:

"Case 1: there are several types of C2 fractures. The common ones are ' hangman's fracture" and odontoid fracture. There is a fair amount of room within the bony spinal canal at that level for the spinal cord, but if there is enough displacement of the fracture the spinal cord can be injured. I suspect his head hit the sandy bottom causing the fracture and likely injury to the spinal cord. He was unable to roll himself over and drowned. Some patients do have a congenitally narrow spinal canal and would require less displacement of the fracture to cause a neurological injury. "