Case study 134 | Cervical spinal cord injury from diving resulting in quadriplegia-Dr. Betsy Grunch

[@fionabackhouse1186]

Thank you 😊 for allways explaining in a manner that us non medical folk can understand.

[@rumit9946]

thank you for sharing this case, you have an absolute gift for the complex easy to understand. Thank you for all you do.

[@sonyamesh5730]

This is a brilliant and such a well-explained short video. I come from a non-medical background and this was very comprehensive and eye-opening to see. Thank you, Dr. Grunch.

[@musicbeachdance]

Thank you Dr. Grunch for this explanation 🙏. Very informative as always

[@zamzamwater8749]

They need to teach this in school. I will never forget the first person I’ve ever met who was a quad at my first cna job. That’s how he became paralyzed at 23 years old. He was 55 when I met him. I felt so bad for him. Ever since I’ve told people to never dive while swimming.

[@hdeutsch1974]

Talking to my kids about diving safety...today.

[@JustaReadingguy]

Keep up your good work and prayers for the young man.

[@missyscarborough8300]

Oh how I wish we would have known about Dr Grunch back in 2008, when my 32 yr old cousin was celebrating his 4th of July with friends at a lake when he attempted to swing out on a rope tied in a tree and drop into the lake. He didn’t make it to the water and instead landed on the exposed tree roots and broke his neck. His break was C4-5 area but he too lost the ability to breathe so the damage must have extended to C3 also. He was there in Atlanta so he spent several months at the Shepard center. He was a single dad with full custody before the accident so his mom, his sister and I spent the next year caring for him ourselves, rather than in a facility, so he could keep his son. He only lived a year. It was one of the hardest years of our life. Challenging feels like it doesn’t properly articulate that experience.

[@tomsprincessa3905]

My grandfather was the Chief of Pathology when I was a kid - he was constantly drilling into us not to dive. My sister was a little daredevil as a kid; she always was running and flipping and diving off the dock into the lake. My grandfather was watching us for our folks one day, my sister (about 7), ran off the end of the dock and did a dive nearly straight down. I’ve never seen my grandfather run so fast and jump in after her. She popped up a few feet away, totally fine and unaware what was going on on. Needless to say we were all done swimming that day. She learned really quick never to dive like that into water. Thank God she wasn’t hurt - but I’ve been paranoid of diving into water ever since I was a kid. Even when I was learning how to dive in a deep well dive pool, I struggled with the angle. When we were older my grandfather told me, that not only had he seen horrific injuries as a pathologist, but when he was in Medical School he was a lifeguard at a the university pool. He pulled several people out due to various diving injuries. One had an injury similar to your case here, a fellow med student. He didn’t survive. Another hit the water at a bad angle and split his abdomen open. 🤢. So yeah Doc… I agree. Don’t dive!!

[@diane5593]

Love your medical explanations, for me very interesting. Also you look so pretty with your new hair color!. Always wanted to do this too.pale blonde with ruddy skin. You've maby given my the confidence to do this to!!? 😊

[@Tryp-j9d]

“they DRUG him out of the pool” ??? And YOU are a DOCTOR??? DAMN!!!!!

[@Tryp-j9d]

The GIMONGOUS GLASSES are VERY STUPID!!!

[@GretalRabbit]

Most wheelchair users dislike the term ‘wheelchair bound’ (a wheelchair is a tool for gaining mobility and providing people with freedom of movement) and prefer terms more neutral terms like wheelchair user.

[@sheri4359]

@GretalRabbit Is that what you got out of watching this video? In the 40 plus years I’ve been in a wheelchair with a SCI I have not ONCE cared whether someone called me wheelchair bound or user or any other term. I cared that I lost the ability to walk or to pee or to control my bowels and a thousand other things I wish I could warn people about. The message in this video is that a young man’s life has been drastically and horrifically changed forever by breaking his neck on the bottom of a pool. Those of us who are actually wheelchair bound have many more pressing issues than to care about what term someone uses. Dr. Grunch has done amazing work to help improve the lives of so many. Giving her grief about what term she uses is just not okay. Spread the word about the dangers of diving into shallow waters but please lay off caring about what word someone uses to describe someone in a wheelchair. We don’t care about that. It’s unimportant in our lives. Thank you.