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Perfect Safety
by Dave
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
I apologize for not having posted anything here in far too long. I've started several articles but nothing much holds my interest right now. It certainly isn't for a lack of subjects to cover. Rather it is an overabundance of topics, none of which seems able to hold my attention for long enough to complete an article. Additionally there has been so much going on in American politics that my attention has been split. But while I haven't produced anything worthy of publication recently, there is one subject I want to discuss just for the sake of my sanity. That subject is safety in sports, especially in light of the recent headlines concerning sudden cardiac arrest caused by blunt chest trauma.
Many decades ago I was a baseball player happily playing my then favorite game. It was a beautiful late spring early evening. The sun had just disappeared over the large stand of trees located behind homeplate. The lights had just been switched to on and that confounded electric buzz filled the air. The mosquitoes were just waking up and beginning to harass us. But as the evening was just cooling off, we didn't mind very much.
I was playing third and my team was up a couple runs. Our pitcher was sailing along and I think it was around the third or fourth inning when he finally gave up a walk. The runner promptly stole second. I tensed up a bit in anticipation of him attempting to advance to my base next. The pitch was thrown for a strike and our rather capable catcher caught it cleanly. I could see the runner breaking for third out of the corner of my eye and heard the shortstop screaming "He's GOIN'." I quickly covered the bag and got myself in good position to make a play. I was pretty sure we were going to get this guy but the throw came in a little high. I jumped about as high as I possibly could, planning on grabbing the ball and coming down in a tagging position right before the sliding runner got there. As I reached the apex of my flight, my vision was fixed on the high throw but something else suddenly appeared. Just over the top of the trees was the bright sun, shining right in my eyes. I was completely blinded. All I saw was a bright yellow glare as the thrown ball struck me square in the eye socket.
The pain from the blow was excruciating. The field umpire ran into the woods and vomited. I spun on the ground for what seemed like an eternity until I ran out of gas or the pain subsided. I don't know which happened first. The ball scratched my cornea pretty badly. Normally a scratched cornea calls for an eye patch but I recall the emergency room doctor saying something about the eye being completely closed from the swelling. He said it looked like it would be for a week or two. It was.
Well that was my fun with sports injuries. I could tell you some more of my sports injury stories but several of these are far too disgusting to get into. And I do want to discuss another story which has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with safety.
A few years back my children were very young. One daughter was around 3, I think, and she really wanted to start playing with other kids. She was never very comfortable with neighbor kids of a similar age so when a couple girls across the street wanted her to come over and play in the front yard, I thought it would be a good idea. The neighbors had this neat little tree with low limbs which even a 3 year old could climb. The neighbor girls' parents told us the girls would be just playing around that tree. They would bring her back to our house in an hour or two, after they were done. But as a nervous parent, I decided to sit on my front stoop and watch.
I was amused as the girls climbed a few feet into the tree. My shy girl seemed to be having a lot of fun. I went in the house to get a glass of water and when I cam out, I watched as she climbed out on a limb about two feet from the ground. Just then she looked over at her new friends and smiled. Then suddenly she seemed to lose her equilibrium and grasp on the branches. Gradually she slid between these two gnarled-looking branches which criss-crossed in several places. I put down my glass of water and stood, watching, as she slipped all the way down to her neck. I raced across the street, into the neighbor's yard, and grabbed her just as she took up the perfect hangman position with her chin and back of her head wedged in between the branches and her feet about 8 inches from the ground. It took my several seconds to free her because she was so tightly wedged in. Had I not been there, she would certainly have hung herself to death. My spine shivers whenever I think of that day. I thank God for making me an overprotective parent who never let his kid out of his sight for more than a few seconds.
So where am I going with my tails of sports injuries and the near-death experience of my daughter? I want to tell you that in every aspect of life there are no guarantees. People are injured and die almost every second due to some completely unforeseen circumstance. We try to mitigate the risks of serious injury in every aspect of our lives but it is impossible to completely eliminate risk. The best we can ever hope to do is remove the biggest risks without also completely encumbering our daily existences.
Recently, my home state considered the risks associated with sudden death caused by chest trauma. They gave serious consideration to banning non-wooden bats from both fastpitch softball and baseball because of the mistaken belief that balls hit by such bats were more likely to cause commotio cordis resulting in sudden cardiac death. It is my understanding that the bat law now excludes fastpitch softball for a number of different reasons. But, still, I believe the legislation is misguided whether it includes or excludes softball. I believe this is misguided because the degree of trauma - the speed of the projectile - has little to do with the incidence of injury in this case. The crucial element in commotio cordis is timing rather than projectile speed. It makes little difference whether a ball is traveling 125 mph or 35 mph if it hits the victim at precisely the moment necessary to throw off the electric rhythms of the heart.
Yesterday, the America Heart Association released a study about commotio cordis at their conference held in Chicago. The study involved 182 sudden deaths of youths aged 13 to 15 since 1995. Half the deaths took place during participation in organized sports, most during hockey, football or baseball games. What struck me about this study was the incidence of such injury in football. Football players wear shoulder pads which cover the area associated with commotio cordis with a thick piece of padding over which there is a hard plastic shell. If this can't do the trick, I'm not sure what could. And, in fact, the study's lead author said, "we don't know at this point exactly how to design a product that would have specific protection." In other words, there is not only nothing commercially available which anyone claims prevents commotio cordis, but also nobody is really sure how such a product could be designed.
For follow-up reading, I suggest these two articles:
"Study: Athletic gear may not protect kids' hearts"
"Sports Chest Protectors Don't Fully Protect Young Hearts"
I think the bottom line here is, there are risks associated with kids' participation in sports. But as my tree story tells you, there are risks in other aspects of life too. We cannot possibly remove all these risks. The best we can hope for is parents and kids alike to come to the realization that nothing is perfectly safe and there are limits to the effectiveness of safety equipment. I think we can all agree that everything in life has some degree of danger involved. But the fun and experience gained by participation in youth sports probably outweighs the risks for most people. I think we can all see that. Just don't get caught by glare from the sun while you are looking at this subject. You might get hit in the eye.
Permanent Link: Perfect Safety
 
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