During the summer, it seems that some children spend as much time in the water as out of it. One of the worst injuries imaginable -- paralysis caused by diving into water -- happens far too often to both kids and adults.
Every single diving injury is preventable. The bottom line is - don't dive.
Most diving injuries are to the cervical spine. As you prepare to dive, you bend your head forward. This weakens the spine by stretching neck ligaments. Upon impact, the spine will dislocate, fracture and tear the spinal column, often causing paralysis.
There are over 60 paralyzing spinal injuries from diving each year in Texas. That is far more than you would expect given the population, but it does reflect the number of lakes in the state and our love for water.
Before diving into a natural body of water, always walk in and check the depth. Remove any debris below, then measure and mark the depth so everyone knows the best place to dive.
Few home pools are deep enough to dive safely. Five or six feet of water is the absolute minimum. The other danger of a home pool with other swimmers nearby is that you may dive and accidentally land on someone else.
Ingesting alcohol or drugs can hinder good judgment about diving or make you less coordinated and more prone to fall. Avoid running and horseplay near water. It's amazing how many people suffer spinal cord injuries when they slip on tile when running near a swimming pool. And never throw someone into the pool head first.
The scene is repeated with distressing frequency -- someone unfamiliar with a swimming pool, and often after having consumed alcohol or another drug, dives into the water, either believing that the water is deeper than it is, or that he or she can adapt their dive to the existing depth. Striking their head upon the bottom of the pool, their neck is either hyperextended or hyperflexed, and devastating, often permanent spinal cord injury results. What follows is extensive rehabilitation, and a life of partial or total paralysis.
Texas Accident Help Center - Environmental and Human Factors
Environmental and human factors can contribute to a diving injury. For example, the absence of markings on the bottom of the pool can make it difficult for an unfamiliar user to determine the depth of the pool. Added to this is the fact that depth markers on the sides of pools are often inaccurate, and fail to inform the user that while a dive straight down at the marked point may well be into a 9 foot area, if the user strays more than a couple of feet to either side of the marker, the depth may change radically. For example, a 9 foot marker may be placed at the very base of the transition from the shallow to the deep end. When someone dives from the 9 foot marker towards the shallow end, their dive may take them 8 feet or more from the point of the marker. At the point of entry into the water, the water depth may very well be substantially less than the 9 feet which the user is expecting.
The "hopper bottom" discussed above also can play a role in injuries of this type. With a hopper bottom that is 8 feet on a side, the diver has only 64 foot square area in which to dive. If the inexperienced diver does not precisely hit this "target", he or she may find himself diving into 5 feet or less of water, instead of the 8 or 9 feet which they expected.
Safe depth diving research is also very revealing. Few, if any, pool users know and understand that when someone dives from any type of a raised area, such as a diving board or platform, their body does not begin to decelerate until at least one-half of it is in the water. Thus, if someone 6 feet tall dives from a diving board straight down into 3 feet of water, the effect is little, if any, different from diving into an empty pool! While it is indeed true that trained divers can execute dives into 3 feet of water without injury, inexperienced water users do not have the training or expertise to make such a dive. All pools should have as a rule that no one dive into water less than 9 feet deep. In fact, swimming pool research has shown that injuries can happen in depths up to 16 feet, a depth which virtually no residential, and few commercial pools provide.
The substance, which lines the pool, whether concrete, or vinyl, can also alter the risk of injury. Many people who dive do so with their hands out in front of their heads. However, vinyl liner pools are often quite slippery, especially if they are not carefully maintained to avoid any type of growth or accumulation of oil or other residue upon the liner itself. When a diver enters into too shallow water, they undoubtedly expect that their hands will form a safety-type barricade above their heads for any type of obstruction they might hit. However, a slippery vinyl liner can cause the hands to slip out from on top of the head, exposing the head to hyperextension or hyperflexion, depending upon the angle at which the head strikes the bottom of the pool; in either event, catastrophic spinal cord injury can result.
If you are with someone when they suffer a diving injury, make sure they are breathing properly. Two or three people should work together to carefully flip the individual on his or her back while maintaining head and neck alignment. Call emergency personnel immediately. Get the individual out of the water, preferably on a board with the neck braced, and perform CPR if necessary.
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