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Students experience risky sledding on campus |
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
by JACQUELINE SCOTT
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
“When I first went down the hill, I never would have thought that it could have been something that could have potentially killed me,” junior psychology major Jeremy D. Tarney said.
However exciting, risky winter fun can often lead to harm.
Jeremy was seeking the thrill of the hill behind the Hayes School of Music building Dec. 16.
The thrill of ‘suicide hill,’ as his cousin Cara S. Tarney, a sophomore
elementary education major, calls it, caused him unexpected pain.
“I was sledding with some friends of mine and we were having a couple
of good runs,” Jeremy said. “I ended up crashing into the brick wall of
the music building when my goggles fogged up.”
“He didn’t see the wall and wasn’t able to move away in time,” Cara said.
“I had been on the hill before and hadn’t hurt myself but this
experience alters what I believe the risk factors of sledding to be. “
Jeremy was first taken to Watauga Medical Center where initial scans were taken.
He was then transferred to a concentrated neurosurgery unit in Winston-Salem where he stayed for a week.
When he called his parents to tell them about the accident, he minimized the incident as ‘a cut’ to his head.
“The doctors said had he been much smaller, he probably wouldn’t have survived,” Cara said.
Resulting from the accident, Jeremy faced multiple skull fractures that could have potentially led to brain damage.
“There were fractures all around both of my eye sockets and there was a
gaping hole in my forehead where allegedly one of my friends could see
my brain,” Jeremy said.
Cara describes his forehead fracture as one “that literally went ear to ear across his face.”
The frame of his upper-right sinus was damaged and he also suffered a fracture just above the spine.
Four metal plates were drilled into his jaw to attach the fractured lower part of his face to the upper part.
Over the seven-week ordeal, Jeremy lost 40 pounds on an all-liquid diet because of his inability to sustain food.
“I missed a lot of work so I could barely pay the rent,” Jeremy said. “But my parents have been helpful and supportive.”
Regardless of the potential for injury, students still take the risk for a good sledding run.
“I think, if nothing else, people should at least know the danger of
that particular hill,” Cara said. “I don’t think it will stop kids from
sledding down it, but at least they will have been forewarned.”
Similar to Jeremy’s accident, freshman elementary education major Anna
S. Gilchrist-Thompson was sledding with soccer teammates near the
baseball field.
“One of my friends was waiting at the bottom of the hill and was going to record us with her camera,” she said.
As soon as they started down the hill, Gilchrist-Thompson fell off her sled and continued sliding on her back.
“I hit something on the ground… maybe a rock or pipe, and instantly, I
knew something was wrong,” she said. “When I got to the bottom of the
hill I just laid there and kept telling everyone that I had really hurt
my back.”
Her injury included a non-displaced fracture of her third lumbar vertebrae on the left side of her lower back.
“My friend drove me to the infirmary on the night of the incident,” she
said. “It was after-hours, so all they could do was take a urine sample
to make sure my kidneys weren’t injured.”
As a soccer athlete, she was then required to see an athletic trainer.
X-rays indicated a fracture that will prevent her from playing soccer until it fully heals.
In response to the growing number of recent campus accidents, the
Safety & Workers’ Compensation Office addressed safety tips in an
e-mail dispersed to students and faculty Jan. 30.
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