When I took a wilderness emergency medical class the doctor said what kills most people that take a fall is the sudden stop. No joke. He said it causes the internal organs, which are fluid filled, to rupture similar to water balloons hitting a wall. Oh yeah, there are broken bones but it's the internal bleeding what you have to look for. Sometimes it won't show up for hours. The victim is bleeding out internally. There are times the ruptures can coagulate and the bleeding will stop and they wonder why they are passing blood later. But I'm sure there are some doctors out there that can speak to this issue much better.
-----Original Message----- From: John Greer [mailto:jgr...@greerservices.com] Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 2:25 PM To: Cave Tex Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Could you survive after falling 45 feet? I once described a number of European caving accidents (for the old AMCS Newsletter before it quit, and the ms was lost). One was a farmer in southern France (as I recall) who fell 200' in an open pit to a flat dirt floor. He broke both ankles, only, was rescued, went temporarily to the hospital, and then back to farming. This, of course, is an exceptional exception to the usual outcome. John Greer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diana Tomchick" <diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu> To: "Cave Tex" <texascavers@texascavers.com> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 11:52 AM Subject: [Texascavers] Could you survive after falling 45 feet? Listen to this fascinating Science Friday podcast and remember: if you spread yourself out and fall flat into a specially designed mat, you'd probably live but your organs would hurt. http://www.npr.org/2013/11/29/247381666/at-streb-action-lab-dance-and-physics-collide How is this related to caving? Anyone fall a long way in a cave? I've fallen about 15 feet but landed on Bill Steele (and no, I didn't have the time to spread myself out flat, Bill wasn't particularly designed to serve as a mat, and the only thing seriously injured was my dignity). Diana --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
