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BUDDHA: Worst Accident I Ever Saw


Further on the Sporting Disgust topic....


>From: fhcity+@pitt.edu (Frederick S Hann)
>Newsgroups: misc.fitness.weights
>Subject: Worst accident I ever saw
>Date: 15 Dec 1995 17:41:30 GMT
>Organization: University of Pittsburgh


I meant to write this up last week, but the term endeth soon, and the workload,
even for non-student types, peaketh.

The university gym has been (relatively) empty.  I wish it were finals week
all year.  The one exception has been an influx of people who want to do 
a little "toning" in the weight room after their aerobics class.  These people
are the opposite of HIT in philosophy--one guy did a set of forty on the bench
*with just the bar*.  It was hard for me to tell, but I think one guy was the 
instructor.  At least, he was giving everybody advice.  

A young lady and he started to do calf-raises on the Smith machine.  Fine--
our gym doesn't have a "standing calf" machine.  After god-only-knows how many 
sets (I was working out in another section of the gym, and I passed them on the
way to get some water), the guy said something like "we need to get a better
stretch at the bottom. . . hmmm."  He then grabbed one of those adjustable
benches, raised the back portion up to vertical, and used the foot of the 
bench as a riser.  I'll try to give you a mental picture--the man is standing
in the Smith Machine, with the bar high on his neck.  He is facing out, so that
he has to use a strange "reverse twist" to lock the hooks on the pegs.  At
his feet is an adjustable bench, with the back all the way up, so that he
can use the steel crossmemeber on the floor as a riser.  There is another
steel bar that runs the length of the bench, at shin height, but that's
okay, because it fits in between your legs (that's why you had to put
the back of the bench up--the seat would have been too wide for you to
do your calf-raises).  This sort of rube-goldberg improvisation is fairly
common at our gym, and no one even raised an eyebrow.  

In a sudden fit of aggressiveness, the guy put a second forty-five pound
plate on each side.  Up until now, they'd been using just one forty-five
pound plate per side.  Can you see what happens yet?

He helps the young lady hoist the weight, I mean, he's pressing for all
he's worth (not much) to get her up on her toes, when she simply passed
out.  He couldn't control the weight, and because he was behind her, he
was unable to lock the hooks on the safeties.  BOOM.  The bar pile-drived
her into the steel cross member, chin-first.  I'm told she made a whimpering
noise, and rolled over onto her side.  Blood immediately started pooling 
around her head--her eyes were open, but only whites were showing.  She
wasn't moving.  The man was sitting on the floor, apparently in shock.
Her head was "out of round."  as a minimum, her jaw was pulverized.
The rec supervisor got a guard, and the ambulance was there in two or
three minutes.  I checked if she was breathing (she was) and decided not 
to touch her.  I haven't done that emergency medicine routine in a decade,
but I'd have started CPR if she weren't breathing (neck injuries be damned).
Her carotid pulse was strong, and there was now a yard-radius of blood
around her head.  Paramedics did the whole routine--neck immobilization,
airway tube, backboard, IV (to replace lost blood, I guess), shined light
in her eyes (no response) pricked her hands and feet (no response).  I
think the only hope for that girl is that our gym is two hundred yards
from a world-class trauma center (University's).  I wouldn't be surprised
if she died.  Then again, people can be surprisingly resilient.  She
was quite fit (lots of lean body mass--this wasn't Kate Moss).  

The only person I ever saw who bled like that had been beaten in the
head with a baseball bat.  A surgeon worked on that guy for an hour,
but then the man started that "stenatorious (sp?)" breathing, and gave
up the ghost.  I was doing an emergency room stint for my EMT certification 
when I saw that.  

The main piece of advice that I'd like to give people is this--analyze 
your exercise from a worst-case-scenario point of view and always give
yourself an out.

Secondarily, I know that there is a recurring thread about giving people
advice in this newsgroup.  Personally, I had pretty much given up giving
advice because either the person thinks they know what they're doing, or
the person thinks you're hitting on them.  Live and let live had become
my motto.  Not anymore.  I think I could have taken the time to explain
in a non-threatening manner why what they were doing was unsafe.  I wish
I had.

Fred


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