So, my girlfriend's brother recently got into a 4 wheeler accident in which he believed he broke his tailbone or something. He also landed on his head.... So, he went into the emergency room today for it, and found out it was only a bruised tailbone. The more interesting thing had to do with his head x-ray. While examining it, they found that at some point, he had broken his neck, and never had known about it. He figured he did it during football (he played with me). The wierd thing is that another kid on our team broke his neck while hitting with his head down last year... Anyways, I thought it was interesting/scary how he had broken one of the most delicate bones in the body and not known it. I did this, but on a much smaller scale, with my toe. This leads me to wonder...how often does this occur? How often does it occur with small neck fractures? I just thought it was interesting...
My Great Grandfather was in a deer stand about 30 feet up in a tree - he fell out on his back and knocked himself out for a fairly long period of time. When he woke up he hiked back in and went to the hospital and they treated him for a concussion. As he was about to leave he decided to have them take a look at a weird sore spot along his spine. Long story short he had broken a vertebra and was very lucky to still be walking or breathing. I’ve had two friends break their spines jumping off the same cliff along the Guadalupe River neither had any long-term problems from the injury. Six months in a body cast does suck though.
I broke my wrist and just figured I'd sprained it or something. After a month, I was still having a hard time lifting things with that hand, so I went to a doctor and found out it was broken. Not a NECK, though...that's scary.
The only thing I can figure is that people are so drunk by the time they get to the cliff they jump off wrong -- it's really not that high (about 45 ft). The injury rate at least among people I know seems excessive for something that size. Whatever the exact reason - many people have hurt themselves badly jumping off ~ it's tough to get up there these days - it looks like Gitmo with all the razor wire etc.
Well, 1) like you said, they're drunk 2) seems kind of high to me 3) it's a river, not a diving well. Some parts of it may not be so deep. There's a lot of risk involved. Even if they can't get up that cliff, I always see people finding other things to jump from, like trees. The peer pressure from their friends is terrible. I'm always afraid I'm going to witness something really bad happening...
I didn't explain what the jump or landing was like at all - when you are about to jump there is a short runway the footing is not tricky just a straight shot. The river opens up into an big 'cove' under the cliff and the water is very deep and the current is slow. Before you jump you can have a long look to check for floating debris etc. Honestly, it's one of the safer jumps i've done very similar to Paleface at Pace Bend Park with about 10 more feet. So it's just the impact with the water that is causing the trouble -- maybe it's a little higher than it looks, but I really think 45 ft is about right.
It was the impact for me. It jerked my feet up tp my head with my legs straight. It was like a car wreck. I am sitting here feeling pain from it 12 years later. I always thought that whole "it's cool to jump of stuff" thing was stupid. That's what I get for playing along with idiotcy.
What injuries did you get out of it, if you don't mind me asking? Broken legs, etc.? Sounds interesting...
