A Caution About Unsafe Diving

To the Editor:

I am a registered physical therapist (UVM ‘79) and practiced for many years in acute care and orthopedics, and my heart sank when I saw the photo on the cover of The Bee on Friday, August 24, of the boy doing a flip into a children’s wading pool.

One of the worst injuries imaginable — paralysis caused by diving into water — results when persons plunge or do flips into swimming pools or natural bodies of water where water levels are too low. Few home pools are deep enough to dive safely. It is never safe to dive or do flips into a wading pool. The other danger of a home pool with other swimmers nearby is that you may dive and accidentally land on someone else. The bottom line is — never dive or do flips unless the depth of the pool or body of water has been determined to be deep enough and safe for diving (free of underlying rocks or obstacles).

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. (References from: Dennis Maiman, MD, PhD  http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/933197476.html; http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=38338.)

Karen Keating

7 Oak Ridge Drive, Newtown                                      August 28, 2007