Injury Duty Health - Paralyzed by More than Just Fear lyrics

On September 8th 2012, Tulane safety Devon Walker (21 years-old) was left paralyzed after he fractured his spine in a head-to-head collision with a teammate during a game in Tulsa (video: click here). Since then, we've overheard people talking about his injury, whether it be in the hospital or at the grocery store. And, the one big thing that has seemed to connect the conversations: Misinformation. So, we decided take a closer look at spinal cord injuries in football, in hopes that you (both parents and players) might find something here helpful. SPINAL ANATOMY: Your spinal cord is directly connected to your brain. If you were to remove all that surrounded your brain and spinal cord (all the skin, muscle, bone, etc.) the spinal cord would sort of look like a ponytail dangling from the base of the brain. Now, if you imagine your spinal cord is a cooked spaghetti noodle (which is actually pretty close to its real consistency), imagine putting that noodle through the opening of one of those bendy straws (see diagram below). What you would now have is not some bullet proof protection around the noodle, but you'd definitely have protection around that noodle making it less likely to be cut or torn when it's being hit. That is essentially what your spinal cord is, a noodle with a thick covering (the nerd-term for the thick covering is the “dura mater”), hanging from the base of your brain. The spinal cord itself serves as a “highway for information” that carries information from the “outside world” (for example, pain from touching a hot stove) to the brain and also carries information being sent out from the brain to the rest of the body (for example: the command to extend your arm and reach for something). All of your thoughts that eventually become actions (moving your arms, legs ect.) and even some things you don't ever have to consciously “think” about (blood pressure, heart rate etc.) are all (at least partly) controlled via commands form different centers in your brain. Those command signals travel down from your brain and to their eventual targets. Being that this cord is such an important structure, you're body is designed in a way that it tucks your spinal cord behind a lot of protection, mainly your vertebral column (aka your backbone or spine). The spine itself isn't just made up of one long bone though, instead it's made up of vertebrae. Think of the vertebrae as individual building blocks stacked one on top of the other, with padding in-between each block (the pads are called “Intervertebral discs”, in nerd-speak), which are soft gummy-bear-feeling type discs made to adsorb the impact between your vertebrae. Your actual spinal column is made of bone and is divided in to 3 “sections”: Cervical spine (your neck; you have 7 vertical vertebrae or “blocks”) Thoracic spine (your mid-back; you have 12 vertical vertebrae ) Lumbar spine (your lower-back; you have 5 vertical vertebrae ) The vertebrae (the “blocks”) become larger as you go further down your spine, and there are a couple of reasons why this is the case. First, the lower vertebrae have to support more of your body's weight, so it makes sense that they'd be “beefier” and more heavy-duty compared to the higher vertebrae in your neck, which most often only have to worry about holding up the weight of your head. The second reason the vertebrae in your neck are smaller is because as humans we depend on our eyes and ears to keep us aware of our surroundings, and those eyes and ears are attached to your head (obviously). Each time we turn our heads, a complex network of muscles, tendons and ligaments that are attached to our vertebral column pull on the specific vertebrae we need to move, which in turn helps to turn our head. If those vertebrae were big, they'd require a lot of energy to pull on and we'd be straining ourselves every time we wanted to simply turn our heads. Now, going back to our bendy-straw and blocks an*logy, if you imagine the bendy part of the straw being your neck, you'll realize that you have a lot of mobility there. But, your neck is a lot thinner than your chest or waist is round, which again, is great for mobility but not so great in terms of protection for your spinal cord. All that freedom to move around makes your neck more susceptible to being pushed or pulled too far, which brings back to Devon Walkers injury. The Specifics Of Walker's Injury: Devon Walker suffered a fracture of his cervical spine (a “broken neck”). As of the time this article was written, where exactly along his cervical spine his injury happened has not been made public. Early Reports:Several news sources were reporting that Devon “stop breathing” after the injury and that he required CPR while on the field. We have not been able to confirm if Devin did in fact stop breathing, or if his breaths only became very shallow (for reason's we explain later). Understanding The Injuryspinal nerves” branch off, think of these as “off-ramps” from the “main highway” (the main highway being your spinal cord). Each spinal nerve, depending on which level it makes its exit, is responsible for carrying signals to things in that general area. As you now know, the spinal column is divided into three sections (cervical, lumbar and thoracic), and each of these sections have a specific number of “exits” where spinal nerves branch off (see diagram below). In Devon's case, we know that the injury was to his cervical spine (vertebrae in the neck). As you can see in the diagram, the signals that exit the spinal cord at that level are those that control the head, neck, upper arms, hands and breathing muscles (namely the diaphragm); the diaphragm is a large muscle located “underneath your lungs” that allows you take a deep breath). Had Devon's injury only damaged the spinal nerves at that level, he'd most likely have use of his body below the area that was damaged, because the spinal cord itself would have been left undamaged. Unfortunately for Devon, he was unable to move his arms and his legs after the accident, which suggest that the injury was bad enough that all “signals” below the level of his injury were “cut off”, meaning that the actual spinal cord (again, the main “highway”) itself was damaged and not just the spinal nerves. How Did This Happen?: A lot of changes (in the rules, anyway) have been made in the NFL over the last several years in regards to tackling, and a lot of those changes have centered around limiting the times a player is allowed to make a helmet-to-helmet hit on another player. But, what people fail to mention most of the time is that these rules are not only beneficial to the player being hit, but they're also beneficial to the player doing the hitting. It's a lot like boxing gloves in the sense that most people think the gloves were put in place to protect the guy whose head is being punched (and yes, they do help him/her, too), when in reality the gloves were introduced to protect the punchers (relatively weak) bones in their hand to prevent them from breaking. The NFL and youth football organizations such as USA Football have recently made strides to educate players, coaches and parents about the importance of “keeping your head up” while making a tackle, and here's the science behind why it's so important: When the neck is in its “natural” position it has a (healthy) curvature to it, it's not a “straight stack” (in doctor talk the cervical spine is said to be “extended as a result of normal cervical lordosis”). When the head is lowered (i.e. when the neck is flexed) about 30 degrees the cervical spine straightens, and that normal curvature is lost. Instead what you have now is a straight line (see figure below), and as it turns out loss of that natural curvature in the neck at the time of impact is crucial to leading to injury. When players use proper tackling technique the cervical spine is able to effectively dissipate (“scatter”) a lot of the energy from the hit off into the muscles of the neck and shoulders, and some of that force can also be used to bend and flex the neck in ways that aren't harmful to the body. However, when a player decides to “drop their head” to make a hit the curvature in the neck is replaced by a straight-line, and all of that energy that could have been scattered in all the ways we mentioned above, has to now be absorbed almost entirely by bones, the disks, and the ligaments in the neck. With the bones in the neck now stacked one on top of the other, the result is that the cervical spine is compressed between the rapidly moving head on one end, and the force of both the body it's connected to and the one it's about to smash into. With nowhere for all of that energy to go, the straightened cervical spine buckles, and (as in Devon's case) can break under the pressure. Now left unprotected, the soft spinal cord is susceptible to be being stretched, pinched, torn or even severed (see figure below). Where To From Here?: Football is a violent game, period. And, there is no amount of Nerf in the world that is going to eliminate all football injuries, we know this. But, teaching the up and coming young players proper technique is one step in the right direction and we hope that by helping you have a better understanding of the science and anatomy behind it all that you'll feel more confident to step in and correct a player, or even a coach, who is not doing his or her part to protect kids (or adults for that matter). As for those that take the ridiculous stance that all these rules are “making the game boring and soft”, here's a prime example of a big and exciting hit being made, all while using proper technique. But you want to know what is most impressive about the hit? Both players got right back up, and lined up to do it all again. Now that's football! Show Some Love, “Like” Us On: FaceBook And Follow Us On Twitter: @Health_ID