Death warning

[Roger Long]

The tragic death of Natasha Richardson comes with a sidebar of medical knowledge I wasn't aware of as to just how easily a brain bleed can start. A blow on the head so minor that the person jumps up smiling and saying, "I'm good!" can kill them a few hours later. The most vulnerable spot is a weak spot behind the ears, right where someone twisting and ducking to avoid a boom would be struck.

This should be a wake up call for all of us. I doubt that Liam Neeson's wife at a resort where injuries are expected lacks for prompt and skilled medical care but she still died in a hospital. The prognosis out in a boat is beyond grim unless you have the equipment and skill to drill a hole in someone's skull. Then it's just very, very grim.

People who take a lot of aspirin, as I do, or other blood thinners are especially vulnerable. Falls on rocks exploring beaches are another hazard. Now I know why my son got CAT scans after two playground falls when he briefly lost consiousness.

If anyone bumps their head, their pupils should be checked every 10 minutes for several hours and any headache or other symptoms similar to seasickness (which makes it very tough on a boat) should be treated as a major medical crisis requiring immediate evacuation.

Does SBO stock helmets?

 

[letterman]

I's still in awe of the death. Two years ago I fell and went to the hospital immedialtly. Never lost consiousness or had headaches, but they did require me to stay several hours in the hospital. And get a cat scan. Now I know why! Good thing my big nose was inthe way to break the fall.
I always wondered when you read about two guys in afight, one hits the other with a seamingly nothing of a punch, the guys falls and hits his head and dies...

 

[Ross]

Many years ago we had a woman riding on the tailgate of a pickup truck in a parking lot fall out at low speed and land on her head and die from a brain hemorrhage.

 

[sailormanbigd]

Brain Bleed

Hi, good post. As an RN in a Neuro surgical unit i can certainly relate to your post. Coumadin, Plavix, all nsaids and aspirin are the big culprits of brain bleeds. Happens quite alot actually. One of the first symptoms is a change in mental status-usually restlessness and confusion.
The treatment can be just observation and repeat cat scans to determine if bleeding has stoped. The brain is a closed in compartment-hard for things to get in and out. So the bleeding increases pressure and hopefully stops the bleeding. Then they can drill a hole (ventriculostomy) to relieve the pressure and allow some of the fluid/blood to evacuate. The most common procedure is to cut open the coconut and remove the clot(crainiotomy). So, be careful with the coconut!

 

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, after MOB, the next most common cause of death on boats is head trauma. That's one reason I advocate the use of boom brakes.

 

[Roger Long]

Hi, good post. As an RN in a Neuro surgical unit i can certainly relate to your post.

Could you fill us in on what you would look for and what you would do if someone started showing symptoms following a boom strike? I assume taking apirin for the headache is a really bad idea.

 

[John Nantz]

Ignorance is bliss

Good post! I've had more than my share of encounters with the boom (and other things that went "boom", too) and the news article about her death was an eye opener to say the least.

It was amazing how easy it is after being whacked on the side of the head to shrug it off. The worst part is knowing, now, how dangerous it was.

It's good to have a medic chime in with some more details, even if they are a bit gory, but then I guess it goes with the turf. A guy I used to sail with for several years was a medic (both in Viet Nam and after) and worked for a while with an ambulance, was particularly immune to blood and guts. Even was in the delivery room for the delivery his own kid! Guess my stomach didn't get the genes for that.

Back to the helmet, "Latitude 38" had an article in May, 1999, with a picture of a gal wearing a sailors' helmet. Got a lot of comments in the "Letters" department. Wonder what ever happened to the company. At least they got a lot of good free advertising.

Oh, it also had a face shield which would have been good for protecting the face from high-speed wind-blown water drops which act like pellets.

 

[Ross]

Re: Ignorance is bliss

A bike rider's helmet would serve the purpose or a kayaker's helmet.

 

[sailingdog]

A kayaking helmet or rock climbing helmet makes more sense than a bicycling one. Most bicycling helmets don't do that much for side impacts, which are relatively unusual in a bicycling accident. Kayaking and climbing helmets generally have more protection for the side of the head, where it is most vulnerable than cycling helmets will.

 

[Ross]

Anything would be better than a bare head. I guess it also depends on the force and direction of the impact. I am always amazed at how much and how little is seems to take to kill. We had a friend who slipped on a steep snow covered driveway and landed flat on his back. He spent two weeks in intensive care, had two or three broken ribs, his kidneys shut down and he very nearly died. The medicine man got everything started again and he is back to nearly normal after a year.

 

[tommays]

I wear a Hardhat all day and work inside BIG FREAKING MIXERS that will chop me into small parts or cook me or drown me and for good measure there is asphyxiation if i fail to work safe.

And my favorite is getting all sweaty inside a mixer and getting shocked while tig welding.


BUT i am a bit unsure if i am ready to wear a helmet on the sailboat when my bathtub is about the most likely place to wack my head along with the car ride down to the boat .

Wearing a PDF 100% of the time is starting to look pretty smart

 

[Scott B]

The radio was reporting this morning that medical help was offered right away, but was turned down, even sending back an ambulance. Very tragic.


My son takes sailing each summer at the YMCA camp he goes to. Couple of years ago they capsized ( 12ft. boats) he stayed with the boat rather than bailing and fell hitting his head on the boom once the boat was over. The camp doc stated asking him where he was and who Wayne Gretzky was. He knew neither and for a big hockey fan that was highly unusual. They checked him out and was fine except the mild concussion.
Couple of years later, now all the kids are required to wear helmets while sailing.

 

[Ron20324]

The saying is something like "you can sleep on the sofa, roll off and hit your head on the coffee table and die, or you can get hit in the head with the boom and die. Which is "the" way to go? "

 

[Shell]

In our country, once you get past the injury and survive, then you have to get past the insurance companies paperwork and bankruptcy.

 

[biggio]

I almost lost my son at age 10 due to a head injury. He had wreck his bike and hit his head on the curb. I get a calll from his mother (we were divorced) and she told me of his accident and wondered if she should take him to get checked out. I have great medical insurance so cost wasn't an issue.
I asked if he was unconscious at any time does he know his name and what day it is? She told me he was actually outside playing again. I told her I think he will be fine.
Early that evening I get a calll and she told she was at the emergency room
and just wanted him check out. No biggie I think. I go and meet them at the emergency room and he appears to be fine to me and the doctor treating him. We were told by the doctor he would be released after another doctor reviewed his x ray. After a long wait we get called to another room and the doctor told us the xray showed he was bleeding between the skull and the brain. And a neuro surgeon had been called in and they wanted to operate that night.
After the procedure was described to us I asked if there was any other type of treatment? The doctors told me without the surgery he would go into a comma within 3 days and we would loose him.
But the doctor said we could put him in ICU re xray him in the morning
and if the bleeding area has expanded we would have to do the surgery in the morning. We took the wait till morning option.
The next xray showed the area bleeding had expanded. My son was petrified of doctors and needles.
I had to explain what was going to happen to him and I couldn't be in the operating room. The surgery is not a pretty one they cut him from above the temple to behind the ear and remove a piece of skull in the affected area and seal the broken blood vessels. And then they put in 16 staples to close the incision.
As he was wheeled into OR I told him I'll be outside the door. He said will you spend the night with me again and gave me the thumbs up sign.

He pulled thru like a champ. He has a scar that will be with him the rest of his life.

If any parents have young kids take head injuries serious. If my son had been staying with me for the weekend I might not of taken him to the ER
out of ignorance not neglect.

 

[sailingdog]

Every one should take head injuries seriously... not just parents.

 

[Nereussailor]

Maybe we all should just sell our sailboats,sit at home strapped to the couch (so we don't fall off) and wait to die. That would be a safe thing. Life is about risk....and I could die tomorrow and everyone I know would be able to say that he lived a full life and enjoyed it.
Another thought........If your boom can hit you in the head, your boat is too small.

 

[Chuck Creel]

I almost lost my son at age 10 due to a head injury. He had wreck his bike and hit his head on the curb. I get a calll from his mother (we were divorced) and she told me of his accident and wondered if she should take him to get checked out. I have great medical insurance so cost wasn't an issue.
I asked if he was unconscious at any time does he know his name and what day it is? She told me he was actually outside playing again. I told her I think he will be fine.
Early that evening I get a calll and she told she was at the emergency room
and just wanted him check out. No biggie I think. I go and meet them at the emergency room and he appears to be fine to me and the doctor treating him. We were told by the doctor he would be released after another doctor reviewed his x ray. After a long wait we get called to another room and the doctor told us the xray showed he was bleeding between the skull and the brain. And a neuro surgeon had been called in and they wanted to operate that night.
After the procedure was described to us I asked if there was any other type of treatment? The doctors told me without the surgery he would go into a comma within 3 days and we would loose him.
But the doctor said we could put him in ICU re xray him in the morning
and if the bleeding area has expanded we would have to do the surgery in the morning. We took the wait till morning option.
The next xray showed the area bleeding had expanded. My son was petrified of doctors and needles.
I had to explain what was going to happen to him and I couldn't be in the operating room. The surgery is not a pretty one they cut him from above the temple to behind the ear and remove a piece of skull in the affected area and seal the broken blood vessels. And then they put in 16 staples to close the incision.
As he was wheeled into OR I told him I'll be outside the door. He said will you spend the night with me again and gave me the thumbs up sign.

He pulled thru like a champ. He has a scar that will be with him the rest of his life.

If any parents have young kids take head injuries serious. If my son had been staying with me for the weekend I might not of taken him to the ER
out of ignorance not neglect.

Fellow sailors and Parents alike. Please listen to the this thread and take note of what I am about to tell you.
We lost our only child " an 8 yr old son" other than the fact that he was diagnosed as ADD. " attention deficit disorder". Jacob was getting ready for school and told his mother that he had a head ache. Whe my wife reached for some Tylenol to give him, She heard him screm and before she could get to him he was lying in the floor unconsious. She called 911 and The EMS service was there pronto and began breathing for him. Then while loading him into the ambulance he went into full cardiac arrest. He was flown by life flight to the best hosptial " childrens hospital a 15-min helicopter ride:" away and went into emergency surgury because a vessel in his head had ruptured . The coroner ruled it as natural death and fore went the autopsy.
I raised 9 shades of hell and ask him to tell me what was natural abt a healthy 8 yr old dying. He then decided to do the autopsy at my request and that was the final results. " ruptured blood vessel in head".

Point being, untill the headache, everything was fine, then less than 5 minutes later , he was dying before my wifes eyes. NEVER take ANYTHING for granted whether it is child or adult when it comes to head bumps.

And ALLWAYS, I mean ALLWAYS let your children 's last words they hear you say is I love you. EVERY single time you leave them or tuck them in for the night.

God bless and fair winds.
Sorry for the long post and typo's this was DEC 7th 2004 and the tears still flow.

Capt Charles Creel
S/V Jacob's dream " After my belated Sailor "

 

[Benny]

Shows you how frail life is. I don't think a helmet is the answer unless you are willing to wear one at all times. My wife wanted to go snow skiing and I said no as she had broken a leg just recently, after reading the news she said she would do it. I agree with her that that was a freak accident. But how frail life is! Go out do and enjoy.

 

[rardiH36]

Every time I go out solo, I wear a bicycle helmet. Idea is it will help deflect a square-on noggin hit from the boom (or me into the boom or something else) and I will avoid any injury, or be less injured. While in my cockpit, my head is actually below boom level. But say something happened after engaging the auto pilot for a moment and then going to stand up on the seats or up on deck to attend to something. The bicycle helmet very well could make the difference between just saying to myself "that was a stupid move", or be rendered unconscious.

I did debate whether to use my ski helmet instead which has full side protection. But I rationalized that the bicycle helmet was a vast improvement over nothing. And it is comfortable. On SF Bay, I've seen a few folks in smaller hi-tech racing boats with helmets. But yet to see a person on a cruiser with one.

Also, always in a pocket on my life vest, which is always worn from leaving to the dock to returning, I have a submersible VHF radio; always on. So if I'm knocked in the noggin by the boom and launched overboard, I have a better chance of being conscious while I watch my boat sail away. Then it’s a channel 16 call to the Coast Guard.... ("Hey I'm in the water between GG Bridge and Alcatraz. Please send your Horseshoe Cove hi-speed boat to come get me (and try also to save my boat before it sails by itself into Aquatic Park".)

I was sailing solo today on SF Bay. Moderate winds. Very nice. No real threat. My helmet was on my head. Just like it was when I rode my bicycle to/from my house to the boat.