Case #1 - Cervical Injury, ADDITIONAL DETAILS

[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. "

[ricki]

A few additional details have been added to the first post describing this hypothetical scenario. Do any impressions come to mind regarding potential causes and contributing factors to this accident?

[ricki]

Here is some input regarding this case from a physician in charge of the ER of a hospital with a large neurotrauma unit. He discussed and compared conclusions with a neurosurgeon collegue at the hospital.

"We don't believe that there should be any preexsisting injury to cause the fatality. Even a minor hyperextension- trauma of the cervical spine can cause a C2 fracture and hence spinal cord injury on a high level leading to respiratory insufficiency and death. Body-dragging in too shallow water (even with a soft sandy sole) and touching the bottom with some speed ( N= m x V) seems enough to us to explain the accident. Besides hyperextension-trauma also axial head-trauma are the most important causes. We had a man in our intensive-care unit two years ago who suffered a C2 fracture just by falling from his Bycicle while he was standing perfectly stil. He survived with quadreplegia."

[spidermedic]

This one seems to scream freak accident. It's even possible that he had another kiteboarding accident earlier in the day and decided to keep going.