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Crossfit coach severs spine!


Michael Blythe
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Everyone misses lifts. From what I read there was a stack of weights behind him, he dropped the weight and fell and the bar richochet off the stack and struck him. 1 in a million accident that from accounts could have been avoided. Donate if you can as he didn't have insurance and in the USA that can be a death sentence.

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Connor Davies

Donate if you can as he didn't have insurance and in the USA that can be a death sentence.

With 180 grand already donated, I think he's gonna make it.

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Too much weight. I walked by a sanctioned crossfit gym on a regular basis and never cared to find out what it was all about. I live near two more and still don't care to walk in. With an injury rate as high as 70+%....no thanks. I am already dealing with lower back injury from aggressive in-line skating plus the effects of having two knee surgeries because I broke my knee cap falling six feet.

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Connor Davies

I walked by a sanctioned crossfit gym on a regular basis and never cared to find out what it was all about.

I'm considering it if it provides me access to stall bars.  I don't think you have to follow the programming they provide.  As a training space, at the very least they have access to a better class of equipment than your average gym.

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I'm considering it if it provides me access to stall bars.  I don't think you have to follow the programming they provide.  As a training space, at the very least they have access to a better class of equipment than your average gym.

I wouldn't know if there are stall bars in crossfit fitness gyms. I have never seen stall bars in standard fitness gyms. I use a wooden I beam or the local playground equipment for pull ups, hanging leg lifts and side lever.

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Saw a video purporting to be the injury.  Looks like he was injured before the bar hit anything.  His back was arched so I don't see how it could have hit the T11.  Looks like his spine gave out.

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His spine did not give out; that clearly does not happen according to the video.

 

For some reason he was lifting in the rear of his platform area.  In addition there were plates piled in small stacks just off the back of the platform.  

 

He fell backward out of a snatch while dumping the bar behind him.  He landed on his tail, clear of the bar, and all was fine.  His body still had tonus.  One side of the dumped bar bounced off a stack of bumpers; right into his back.  The effect was instantaneous; it was like someone had flicked a switch.  He immediately lost tonus and collapsed backward.

 

This is a very unfortunate incident.  By all accounts Kevin was an outstanding athlete.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

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I have trained in a Crossfit gym doing non-Crossfit training since 2009.

 

My facility has 3 sets of stall bars and a pair of dedicated (fixed) long rings (as well as numerous shorter-length rings on the pull-up bars). The gym also has a set of both wooden and metal p-bars, a pommel horse, stacks of panel mats, and a mushroom.

 

I was introduced to Coach Sommer's work through the owner of the gym, who showed me Coach's Dragon Door articles and this site.

 

In a general sense Crossfit also introduced me to gymnastic rings as a strength tool. 

 

To paraphrase Mark Rippetoe, it has placed gymnastic rings in more hands in the last 10 years than the last 100 years of Olympics.

 

I have participated in and observed classes at Crossfit Portland and other Crossfits in the US and in Tokyo (Chikara) since 2008 and I can unequivocally say that the owners of Crossfit Portland, one of the first 25 Crossfits, as well as the owners of Crossfit Chikara have extensive experience training people. They strive to keep members injury-free, and stress the importance of good form.

 

Both Crossfit Portland and Chikara Crossfit also allowed me to train during off-hours or in a corner during classes.

 

Crossfit Portland owner Scott H. even built a hanging bucket for me for one of the old GB WODs, which featured bucket circles.

 

Also, in 2012 I suffered a compound avulsion fracture of my left heel bone.

 

I was uninsured and faced with a 5-digit hospital bill.

 

The owners of Crossfit Portland held a fundraiser in which they matched gym member donations. The owners and the members of the gym ---- some of them people I didn't even know and had never spoken to, they had only ever seen me training in a corner --- helped me and my family pay off the bill.

 

I do not practice Crossfit, practiced it for a relatively very short while, and have no interest in returning to it.

 

Yet I owe a large debt to it --- without Crossfit, I would not have been exposed to Coach Sommer's work, I would not have the tools I have access to, and I would not have the support or community to train gymnastics strength.

 

Clearly I can't speak for all Crossfit gyms everywhere. However, to dismiss the opportunities at Crossfit gyms to get stronger is short-sighted and naive.

 

The poor guy suffered a freak accident and I wish him the best --- and it appears a community has rallied to help him.

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Poor guy that is a horrible injury to have, a rugby player from Bala near where I'm from severed his spine a few years back in his last ever club game, was horrible to see what his family had to go through. My sympathies go out to him and his family

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Michael Blythe

He was a high level athlete working in his ability range . I guess what I meant is be careful and be aware of your surroundings . No one likes to see anyone get hurt ! He looks like a really strong guy I hope they can fix him .

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Watched the video again, looks like somebody edited out the part where it smashes into him.  Definitely had tonus, and then it was gone. 

 

What a tragedy.  Any chance of recovery from something like that? 

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Brad Mifsud, I would ask you for a reliable instance where lack of insurance in this country,USA, would be a 'death sentence' for an acute injury such as this. None of us would deny him care under the circumstances. Also the current law, particularly in California, allows such a person as this to actually apply for and get coverage  retrospectively, bizarre as that may seem.  However he will receive donations that will help him, nonetheless.

 

Crossfit has introduced gymnastics to literally tens of thousands of people who were afraid of it or unaware of it. The gyms are by and large safe. The level one  training courses are not exhaustive, and may have faults, but safety is stressed. The reputation for injury is much overstated, but if you read this forum,  musculoligamentous  injuries are not unheard of among adults pursuing  gymnastic skills.. There is more rhabdomyolysis  from sustained biking than  in all of crossfit, as an aside.

 

This was a terrible injury sustained under  unusual circumstances. It isn't the norm, obviously.

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Connor Davies

There is more rhabdomyolysis  from sustained biking than  in all of crossfit, as an aside.

Really?  The way the information has been presented to me, rhabdo seems to be a crossfit-only kind of condition...

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Brad Mifsud, I would ask you for a reliable instance where lack of insurance in this country,USA, would be a 'death sentence' for an acute injury such as this. None of us would deny him care under the circumstances. Also the current law, particularly in California, allows such a person as this to actually apply for and get coverage  retrospectively, bizarre as that may seem.  However he will receive donations that will help him.

I hope you are right but here is an article starting at 1994 and you can follow it through to research at the present day:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1615085/citedby/

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Brad,  a metanalysis of large numbers of patients across a very large spectrum of different institutions over 20 years , looking at disparities in outcomes and care managements, which has an unbelievable amount of conflicting data, some of it supporting  the contentions of the dozens of authors, that there  are indeed some measurable differences,   is not the same thing as  a "death sentence". Your statement implied "no insurance, = death sentence".  So there really is no argument here. Going to a search engine and pulling up studies like these is absurd. You are either misinformed, or have an opinion to which you are entitled, which is not borne out in the facts. We don't pronounce death sentences on patients with no insurance.
 
 Bipopcni, Rhabdomyolisis is NOT  "crossfit only"; you are misinformed.  Patients presented with rhabdo decades before Greg Glassman ever  thought of crossfit, and it was described centuries ago, although  the pathophysiology was unknown.  It is not really common, but protracted eccentric contractile  exercise is definitely associated with it. Things like  jumping pullup,s in people deconditioned, or  unaccustomed to sustained exercise can definitely do it. Crossfit has become [popular, and  there will be people who don't scale  the work properly. Military recruits, unable to   'scale' their drills and training, occasionally suffer from this problem too.
 
I cant see the video, it is apparently only 6 or 10 seconds duration, but the owner/coach of my crossfit gym has viewed it and he is very reliable. He suggests that this man indeed bailed correctly, and the barbell struck some bumper plates, but that  that the barbell did not in fact strike him. I am sure  the facts will come out, but there are several rare  scenarios that could have  caused  this tragic event, resulting in severe spinal cord compression acutely. For the record, this kind of thing rarely  'severs' the cord, but functionally the result is the same.
 

It really isn't Crossfit per se  that is the problem here, but I have no doubt there will be plenty of nonsense spread around about this event.

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I reviewed a short clip demonstrating  the lift. It is really sad and  hard to watch.Assuming Rogue or Eleiko plates and a 45 lb bar, it looks like about 220 lbs total for the  snatch that he does with good form. Judging from the other pictures of him and his physique,   this should not have been an unreasonable weight for him  to use.

He does the lift with no problem, lowers into a squat, and then on the way up he suddenly collapses. There is no way to assess tone,  but the positioning of his lower extremities into the final extended position, and the way he goes down suggests he was acutely paralyzed  just before he let go of the bar. He may have had some underlying  vertebral  or disc pathology(tumor, prior trauma or compression deformity), but  sudden retropulsion of disc or bone  into the canal  like this, in a healthy very strong individual is exceedingly rare. This isn't a crossfit safety issue.

There is really no evidence the bar bounces off the plates,and strikes him, and there is no way in any case,  such would have caused his loss of motor control in any way shape or form. Something happened as he was rising from the squat.

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Brad,  a metanalysis of large numbers of patients across a very large spectrum of different institutions over 20 years , looking at disparities in outcomes and care managements, which has an unbelievable amount of conflicting data, some of it supporting  the contentions of the dozens of authors, that there  are indeed some measurable differences,   is not the same thing as  a "death sentence". Your statement implied "no insurance, = death sentence".  So there really is no argument here. Going to a search engine and pulling up studies like these is absurd. You are either misinformed, or have an opinion to which you are entitled, which is not borne out in the facts. We don't pronounce death sentences on patients with no insurance.

There was a fair amount written about uninsured acute patients having a higher mortality rate then insured patients.

It took 35 seconds on Google to find this info so clearly there is a fair amount of info out there. Surprisingly I didn't have the same luck finding support for your claims.

It seems strange his insurance status is mentioned in the media if its a non issue to his care as you appear to suggest. Maybe you can respond more widely to the crossfit community with the information you have regarding health care in California as it might put many people at ease.

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As an er nurse I can fully say at my hospital it makes no difference. Were have protocols for conditions and they dont change based on insurance.

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