A new report takes a look at the good work being conducted by the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation. Through their straight-forward Feet First initiative, the organization is attempting to get the word out about the importance of safely entering bodies of water by always going in, as the slogan suggests, feet first.
The worry is that jumping into an unknown body of water headfirst leaves one open to potential spinal trauma. In fact, 1,000 diving injuries every year are said to involve such a spinal cord injury.
The Foundation explains that this kind of attention to safety doesn’t have to be the sole purview of lakes, rivers, and other natural bodies of water. They say that even swimming pools should come with similar attention to safe diving.
To illustrate the point, the report linked to above delves into the story of a college student whose dive into a seemingly deep lake instead brought her into contact with a rock, causing her to suffer paralysis from the chest down due to the instant shattering of her C7 vertebra. The woman currently undergoes therapy and is learning how to care for herself given her new situation.
She hopes to use her experience as a platform with which to teach others the importance of safety in this area, a goal that the ThinkFirst Foundation is more than happy to back up.
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