"TonyB" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
>
> "Samuel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> > > Mind you, not likely to affect me, (or any other LR drivers) if they
>> > managed to get into the 110 then chances are they're not too badly
>> > affected. Maybe it's safer just offering people to sit on the rock
>> > sliders.....
>> >
>>
>> And its probably easier to unbolt the roof of a landrover rather than cut
> it
>> off.
>>
>> But i am with you on this one willie, i can't imagine how it would be
> easier
>> or safer to pull a person out of a freshly cut (remember all those jagged
>> bits of metal that will now be poking out) roof rather than out the door.
>> I'm sure there must be some intelligent reason.
>
> Sorry guys, but an unstable fracture of the cervical vertebrae can result
> in
> total paralysis if the victim is moved wrongly even by a quarter of an
> inch.
> Fractures are sometimes stabilised by muscle spasm in the first instance
> and
> there are many tales of folks moving around for a while until their head
> effectively falls off. My favourite is one I saw with my own eyes and have
> the x-rays in my collection. A young lady rode her horse under a tree
> branch
> in Hampshire and got knocked off. After a short period of recovery she
> gave
> the horse back and drove home to Suffolk. She then attended A&E ( or ED if
> I'm being PC now ) hwre it was discovered that she had this amazing
> fracture
> of the top of her neck. There was nothing holding her neck together and
> one
> false move would have paralysed her. Funny thing was, she didn't believe
> the
> doctors until one told her to discharge herself and he would follow her
> because he'd have a bet on how far she would get!
>
> Another x-ray I have shows a motorcyclist with a clear gap between his
> neck
> and head. He died.
>
> Similar fractures lower in the spine can result in lower limb paralysis on
> the same basis. Road accidents carry a very high degree of violence,
> matched
> only by explosions and falls from a great height. By taking the roof off
> one would assume enough room is created for the paramedics to get the
> spinal
> boards in, rather than the need to get the casualty out, but that's just a
> guess.
>
> TonyB
>
>
About ten years ago, my younger brother got ran off his motorbike by a woman
in a vauxhall cavalier. I was about 200yds behind him in my car and saw the
whole thing. He was riding round a right hand bend and the car, coming in
the opposite direction, missed the bend and went straight into his path. He
had the presence of mind to ditch the bike, which went under the car, and he
bounced off the nearside front wing. His head hit the tarmac and his helmet
came off. I pulled my car up across the road to protect him. He was lying on
his back, unconscious. The only other witness was a police officer who was
in a patrol vehicle behind my car. He went to check on my brother, after
radioing for an ambulance etc. He tried to put a jumper behind his head, I
stopped him and reminded him that he was breathing, there was no sign of
major blood loss and unecessary movement may paralyse him. The ambulance
arrived about 5-10 mins later. The ambulance guys started talking to my
brother as he lapsed in and out of consciousness. Then, to my complete
amazement, they pulled him to his feet and walked him to the ambulance!!!!
He was acting as if he was drunk and had no idea what had happened. At the
hospital I complained about this because it went against everything I had
ever learnt as a first aider. Of course nothing ever came of it. My brother
made a full recovery after surgery to stop internal bleeding.
Stew.
