scary stuff

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 8:21 pm

I'm in Nags Head, NC (beach, for you non-US Easterners) with extended family including 17 kids from 4 to 20.
Our lovely flock of 7 teenage girls had been spending entirely too much time a couple houses down the beach with a group of 18 year old male Vermonters whom my cousin had collectively dubbed "Fabio" and "Jesus." (Hair, I guess.)
Anyway, today Fabio, who's real name is Mike, dove into an oncoming wave and came up floating face down a minute later at which point people noticed and pulled him out. He's been airlifted out and has a C5 fracture--potential spinal cord damage not yet known, though he could talk and breathe once the nearby nurse got the water out of his lungs. He'd gone headfirst into an unexpected sandbar.
Don't know how it will turn out. The girls will keep in touch I'm sure.
But Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be guys who dive where they can't see the bottom.
Scary.
I was here when, a few years ago, a young guy was sitting in the 6 foot deep hole he dug for himself in the sand when it fell in on him. They dug him out, but not alive.
Have not seen sharks. The dolphins are reassuring that way.

scottielvr · Post by **scottielvr** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 8:28 pm

Scary, indeed. Hope the lad will recover; that's too high a price to pay for a moment's stupidity. Lucky there was a nurse there, too.

Be well, enjoy the Outer Banks--and do keep those dolphins around.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 8:32 pm

Oh geez. There's just no end to it, is there? I hope the young fellow is okay. Being able to talk and breathe right away might be a good sign. His poor family. That is scary if there are sand bars popping up after you thought it was deep enough. I will spread the word. I hope you can still get some enjoyment from your vacation in spite of this terrible thing. The mere idea of sharks would keep me out of the water. Do you have some good books to read?

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:50 am

There you are. I wondered why you hadn't joined in the recent fun threads.

I hope the lad will be OK. Tragic.

My oldest daughter recently got slammed into the bottom face first by a wave at VA beach. Thank God she didn't pass out.

Obviously the ocean is dangerous. Ban Oceans!!!

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:34 am

Hope the lad makes a full recovery, that's a very unlucky accident.

Aaaah, the days of being an 18 year old male. Sigh.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:39 pm

Years ago a young nephew (twice- or thrice-removed; I lose track of that sort of thing) dove into the shallows of Lake Minnetonka and either grossly misjudged his trajectory or hit an unseen rise in the lake floor. I knew there was trouble when I realised he was floating facedown on the surface far too long for recreational purposes. We dragged him out and flipped him over --VERY bad first aid, but we didn't see an alternative-- and while thankfully he hadn't drowned, he was paralysed from the neck down with a C5. Amazingly, he made a full recovery. We were told that on average, out of all C5 fractures in a given year worldwide, only about five such recoveries can be hoped for. Daunting odds.

Hope the lad falls within that lucky group.

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:11 pm

Crazy.

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:25 am

Back in the early 80s when I worked as an intensive care nurse the number one and two causes of cervical spine fractures and subsequent paraplegia were diving accidents and mortorcycle accidents. Every summer the ICUs have a forseeable string of these. We could ban shallow water and motorcycles but then the little kids and the big kids wouldn't be able to play. Not fair! So let's just be careful out there! And moms, watch your kids and your husbands.
Mike

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:35 am

This type of accident happens occasionally at Lake Powell where the Glen Canyon dam has created a lake hundreds of feet deep - but covering ledges, spires, etc. so that divers go in head first to water they think is very deep, only to hit a ledge or outcrop. It's extraordinarily dangerous and there have been people killed, as well as paralyzed. Hope this young man makes a full recovery.

Susan

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:00 pm

Sorry for the bump in your vacation (beyond the obvious wishes for the kid). Twice I have been on a vacation trip to the water and had fatal drownings nearby. On one of those times, I saw the guy get swept down some below-dam rapids (this was in India). They found him a day later down the river. It was awful. Since I had declined to go swimming with those guys minutes earlier, it was one of those "angel on my shoulder" moments.

Having fun is risky. Speaking of surfing and risk, I watched the documentary about Dogtown and Z-Boys and the footage of those kids surfing between pilings down in Venice made my flesh crawl. Talk about risk. There was also some collapsed wreckage from Pacific Ocean Park submerged in the water there. I wonder if that has ever been cleaned up.