12/22/24
April 18, 2012
The Fencing Response: (youtube link) "The fencing response is an unnatural position of the arms following a concussion. Immediately after moderate forces have been applied to the brainstem, the forearms are held flexed or extended (typically into the air) for a period lasting up to several seconds after the impact. The Fencing Response is often observed during athletic competition involving contact, such as football, hockey, rugby, boxing and martial arts. It is used as an overt indicator of injury force magnitude and midbrain localization to aid in injury identification and classification for events including, but not limited to, on-field and/or bystander observations of sports-related head injuries." via The Concussion Blog
I made 1:55. I'd never heard of that phenomenon, but will definitely look for it in the future.
posted by tahoemoj at 06:04 PM on April 18, 2012
I knew the Jahvid Best hit in the Cal/Oregon State game would be in this video. That's the scariest hit I've seen in football since Joe Theismann's broken leg.
posted by rcade at 07:55 PM on April 18, 2012
I forced myself to watch the whole thing but wanted to turn it off halfway through. Makes me wonder if Paul Kariya should have been allowed back out on the ice.
posted by MrFrisby at 09:37 PM on April 18, 2012
I couldn't even click. All I could think of when I read the post was during my EMT training, when they described how a serious case of intracranial pressure can cause symptoms of abnormal posturing. It made me want to vomit then. No way I'm clicking that link.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:26 PM on April 18, 2012
Makes me wonder if Paul Kariya should have been allowed back out on the ice.
No. He shouldn't have.
The fact that he did come back and even scored (with the dramatic call of "Off the floor and on the board!") doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid decision by the medical staff in those days.
I think this video has been linked here before, but not with a (deserving) front page post.
posted by grum@work at 10:41 PM on April 19, 2012
I figure that I have seen my fair share of traumatic shit...
I echo that, including a couple of 'live' things, including a Marine with his arm nearly severed (flak jacket saved it) by a 152mm round and 2 Marines inside a sandbagged enclosure when an 82mm mortar round hit the top of it dead center (both lived, but were badly shaken). Still, I shuddered at every one of those hits, and I wonder what can be done? Obviously head protection is either impractical or insufficient. Perhaps in team sports it might be possible to make any contact with the head, accidental or intentional, subject to a lengthy suspension, but in boxing or cage fighting, this can not be done. I understand the impetus that economic circumstances gives to those who choose to participate in those sports, but are they really aware of the possibility of life-threatening injury?
posted by Howard_T at 09:45 PM on April 20, 2012
I figure that I have seen my fair share of traumatic shit on film and video in my years on the planet, and I could only get to the 3 minute mark of that clip.