Basejumper.com - archive

Many of you know me as Tom's wife. I'm also a physician here in Twin Falls. One of my colleagues and I have decided to do a study on BASE jumping injuries. Since Magic Valley Regional Medical Center probably treats more BASE injuries than any other hospital, we are collecting data on the injuries seen here. In doing this, I'm not trying to demonstrate the dangers of the sport. (In fact, I expect the data we collect will show that jumps off the Perrine Bridge result in a surprisingly low number of injuries.)

I am asking for your help in compiling this information. There's no way to do a chart review for BASE injuries (no way to sort the medical records looking for BASE injuries). So, if you've ever been seen at MVRMC for a BASE injury (no matter how small), I'd really appreciate it if you'd help me out. I WILL NOT release ANY information that identifies you to ANYONE. We plan to analyze the data and write an academic paper for a medical journal that summarizes the types of injuries that have been seen in our hospital.

If you are willing to help out, please PM me with the following information:

-Your name
-Date of your injury (approximations will work if you aren't sure)
-Type of injury
-Contact information where I can reach you in the event I need further information

If you have any questions about what we're doing, please feel free to PM me. Also, if you know of a jumper who has been treated at MVRMC for an injury who doesn't read this forum, please let them know about this request.

Thanks in advance!!

Cheri

Interesting Cheri, But I'm sure that there's more injuries than what shows up at Magic Valley, I know jumper who has a regular doctor in town, me, He's good about squeezing me in when I need in to see him, ER cost $75 and the doctor is $15 with my insurance co-pay. I almost went to the ER on last trip one night though. I have to learn to stop pitching on my back or just never pack again. Maybe I'll just take up kiting. Thanks, Nic, Bill, and Miles.

Thank you so much for posting this... I just asked the question in another post if anyone could count the injuries at TF...

http://www.dropzone.com/...ost=2280139;#2280139

I can't wait to learn the results...

Thanks again for this post!

Michael

To be able to make a comparrison between injuries and numbers of jumps made from the bridge, why not ask all readers of this post to supply you with the numbers of jumps they have made from the bridge as well as the number of injuries.
Since the same cross-section of BASE jumpers (i.e. DZ.com readers) who report the injuries will also be supplying jump numbers, would this not give you fairly accurate results for a percentage of injuries to jumps?
I am no statistician (I can barely spell it!), so maybe I am way off the mark, but it seems fairly sensible to me.

pm sent

sounds like a good plan

IBPB
number of jumps: 236
number of injuries: 0

I think it's unlikely that anyone is going to be able to estimate the total number of jumps from the bridge well enough to actually take a stab at a statistically accurate jump/injury ratio.

It will be interesting to see how serious the "average" injury is, though. I think that non-jumpers sometimes have a perception that all BASE injuries are very serious (fatal or critical), while my personal perception is that the vast majority are things like broken or sprained ankles that aren't actually nearly so bad. It's tricky to evaluate this, as well, because of the number of people with minor injuries reporting them as caused some other way ("skateboarding accident" or "slammed a car door on my foot" or whatever), such that it appears that almost every accident reported as being BASE related is one in which a helicopter actually rescues a jumper and paramedics have to cut the gear off.

Hee hee hee...I think I did that to myself a while back. Yeah, I was out in West Virginia...some Saturday in October...yeah that's it! I broke 6 bones in my foot that day.

If it helps, Bridge Day 2002-2005 averaged around 800 jumps and 4 ambulance rides each year. Most injuries are lower extremity (foot, ankle, leg, cuts - as expected). Approximately 20% of all Bridge Day jumpers are new to the sport. I try to keep good stats, so if you need more details just ask. Perhaps if the "safety police" down at the WV DOH would let us jump more than six short hours a year, we wouldn't have to rush so much and injuries might be reduced.

Cya.