Spine injuries avoidable

Motor vehicle crashes, falls, failed suicide attempts and sports mishaps were the leading causes of spinal cord injuries in Utah between 1998 and 2003, according to an analysis by the Utah Department of Health Violence and Injury Prevention Program. And while most of those spinal injuries left long-term effects, including some degree of paralysis, the majority of injuries didn't have to happen.

"Looking at the data over all these years, it was so clear that most are preventable," said Cyndi Bemis, media and education coordinator in the Violence and Injury Prevention Program. "It's not having children in car seats, or doing stunts or using improper tackling techniques in football. And the injuries are overwhelmingly lifelong."

From 1998-2003, nearly 400 Utahns suffered spinal cord injuries. Males accounted for 72 percent of them, females 28 percent. Nationally, the ratio for females is 20 percent, and health officials don't know why more women are injured in Utah, though Bemis speculates, "Maybe it's our athleticism, the mountains, so many opportunities for the kind of recreational activities that can lead to spinal cord injuries," she said. "We don't know."

Tim Daynes was 16 when he joined a friend for what he figured would be an "awesome trip" to Lake Powell. On the second day, wind blew a raft out into the water and he decided to retrieve it. He was a great swimmer, an avid waterskier, an all-around athletic kid. He was also a risk taker — he'd jumped off a 50-foot cliff into the water an hour before. But he wasn't being particularly daring when he had the accident that turned him into a quadriplegic. He was going to get the raft.

He waded into water to his ankles, then his knees, then his thighs. It was getting deeper, he figured, so he dived — head-first into a sandbar, breaking his neck. The 33-year-old Daynes now spends part of his time talking to students about accidents. His mantra for swimmers is "feet first the first time."

Young adults 15-24 are at highest risk of spinal cord injuries among males. In those cases, nearly half are caused by some type of motorized vehicle crash, Bemis said. In the study period, they found an average of one motor-vehicle-related spinal cord injury every two weeks. After age 60, falls are the leading cause of injuries for males.

For females, nearly 60 percent of spinal cord injuries are caused by motor vehicle crashes in the younger women, but after age 60, nearly three out of four injuries are caused by falls and by osteoporosis and other medical conditions, including failing vision, balance problems and use of medications.