Person severs spine in crossfit competition in California

[dogbowl]

mr. dogbowl I suspect is right

the bar didn't hit the lower back

it looks like it lands on the stack of plates and rolls back

That wasn't my theory, but it might be right.  It's hard to tell anything from a few frames of video.  

[Coach is Back!]

Go through the video frame by frame. To me it doesn't look like the bar touched him.

[mr.turbo]

To find the collision speed if the weight falls 3 ft:

Square root (2 times 32.2 times 3) = 13.9 feet per second

13.9 times 3600 divided by 5280 = 9.48 mph=4.24 meters per sec.

Force in newtons = 105kg times collision speed (meters per second) divided by the time between the bars first contact with him and the spinal cord severing.

Then multiply by .225 to convert to pounds.

But really,if you look up the minimum force required to break a spine, that would be the answer.  You would need to do a stress/fracture test on a spine to see how much force it takes to break it, and that is likely to be close to the answer. Being hit with a weight greater than this minimum probably won't make a difference in the force it took to sever the spinal cord. The same weight falling through 3 feet (approx.) will exert different forces on different things.  For example it would exert a big force if it hits something hard, but a small force if it hits something soft.  The point is that there is no set force that results from that particular weight falling that particular distance.  It depends on the object it hits and how that object responds to the blow as much as it does to the initial data.  Keep in mind that in this case there are other factors such as the vertebrae coming into contact with the bar first which would change the amount of force it takes to sever the spinal cord.

don't forget to include the mass of the upperbody

here's the freak factor...

the impact of the BAR on the neck appears to occur precisely at the moment his ASS hits the mat. 

I'm gonna look at the support gear a lil bit now and see what we can find.

[dogbowl]

Posting a few thoughts taken from other forums:

“He was attempting a snatch and something went wrong. He bailed backwards on the lift and the barbell came down right on top of him,” said Inez Vasquez, a bystander of the competition. “Then he fell backwards onto either the plates that were stacked or the barbell with plates. It was really upsetting. He sounded very hurt.”
http://www.rawfitnesscombine.com/kevinogarinjury/

I saw the video. The bar hit him in the traps at the same time or just after his body/backside was already in contact with the floor. Doesn't appear to hit him in the T11/12 area, so it must be a compression injury.
I was there but a friend of mine recorded the live stream and cut the video. We watched it many times and it does appear to hit him in lower neck
My buddy is editing the video to take out the aftermath (the worst part). He's gonna post it soon. I'll let ya know
It actually landed on his low/mid back, the spinal cord break was between the T11 and T12. He lost control of the lift and was kind of sitting down when the bar dropped on his back, it was definitely a freak accident.
edit: higher up on the back, mea culpa.
He dropped the snatch and landed right on his lower neck . Spine literally snapped in two. Freak accident but horrible
"I was watching the live stream when it happened. Yes, it was during the 3RM touch-and-go snatch event, but it actually happened on his first snatch. He pulled under and it looked like his elbows were not locked out but he tried to stand up anyway. As he tried to stand his elbows gave and the barbell fell straight down on his back. They immediately moved the camera, but you could heard the guy on the mic saying they needed a medic right away. Not sure about how long it took for EMTs to arrive.

Unbroken 3RM snatch is certainly more dangerous than a heavy single, but this was just a freak accident. Thoughts and prayers go out."

Yes, the bar hits him in mid back on the way down, the angle doesn't help.

nothing to do with landing on the plates.
It's hard to tell for sure(from the video), but it looks like the bar hit his back at a funky angle at the same time(or immediately after) his ass hit the floor... a bad combination.

[mr.turbo]

here's kevin with his lifting belt



this intended to support the lower backarea

in a freak impact scenario like this the forces are redistributed to the mid-back

which may be the straw that broke this camel perversely...

to be clear; I'm saying the lifting belt probably CONTRIBUTED to the injury

[ProudVirgin69]

How maddening that an incident like this be recorded, but from an angle where no one can see what happened

[mr.turbo]

no applause?  

ok

let me explain this a bit more.

the belt creates an inflection point exactly at the T11/T12 juncture by creating a totally rigid box below it

ogar falls, the upperbody hits and stresses that inflection point

the bar hits the neck at the same moment of max stress and SNAP

leave it to dogbowl to draw it up.

Moral of the story?  

Paul Anderson never needed a belt,  Arnold did (to suck in his gut!)



 

[mr.turbo]

generation nothingness of peace 

here's what a real athlete looks like

[Big Chiro Flex]

ETIOLOGY

• Thoracic spine is rigid owing to the support of the rib cage and the costovertebral articulations:
• The spinal canal is narrowest in the thoracic spine.
• Traumatic thoracic spine fractures require enormous forces. Motor-vehicle and motorcycle collisions, pedestrians struck, and falls (particularly from height >10 ft) account for most fractures: A small percentage are caused by penetrating injuries (see “Spinal Cord Syndromes”).
• 50% of all spinal fractures and 40% of all spinal cord injuries occur at the thoracolumbar junction (T11-L2).

The thing about the thoraco-lumbar junction is that injury to this area is associated with what is known as polytrauma.  So, Could there have been a compression fracture prior to the bar striking him?  Unlikely, but possible.  The direct blunt force trauma to the column would be the most likely cause.  Most likely the posterior and medial columns of T11 (based on R Lous' column theory) would have been damaged if there was a fracture.  I haven't heard the specifics of what actually got damaged (other than severed spinal cord).  Not sure I want to know.

Chaos...all joking aside, its unlikely that there were any pre-existing problems with his back at that specific level.  Lumbar region quite possibly.  But would that be something that would have caused it.  I am still not clear if this was a straight out compression injury (unlikely), the bar striking the spine on the way down, or the bar striking the back on the rebound.

Good post. Would love to see his films and MR. I'm hypothesizing a bursting compression fx @ T11.  What do you think?

[macos]

Good post. Would love to see his films and MR. I'm hypothesizing a bursting compression fx @ T11.  What do you think?

why do you think the spine CE off?


So why

generation nothingness of peace 

here's what a real athlete looks like

Holy shit. Respect.

[oldgolds]

Looks to me like he started to pass out and that's why he slumped into a sitting position on the mat.

[Big Chiro Flex]

why do you think the spine CE off?

I don't understand your question bro.

[Man of Steel]

I'm gonna be honest, I don't know what crossfit is.  

Sorry to hear about this person's injury though....I completely understand freak accidents.

[Pray_4_War]

Bad situation.   It's nice to see people pitching in to help him out though. 

[dogbowl]

I posted this in another thread, but thought it should go here too

I just did another search on that crossfitter dude who had that accident, and found some new footage, including a few seconds of him writhing in pain afterwards

(i'm not sure if this has been posted before)  (I still say the bar crushed him on the way down, not after bouncing upwards)

[Mr Anabolic]

So, is this guy paralyzed for life, or what?

[The True Adonis]

So, is this guy paralyzed for life, or what?

This clown has a website now trying to raise money by promoting the very exercise that got him in this predicament.  Safe to say he is no genius.