Life changed in a second
Diving accidents can cause complete quadriplegia, yet are preventable
HIS FAVOURITE team, Orlando Pirates, was to play the CAF Confederation Cup final against Tunisia at the end of last month. To buy time before the big game Galeboe Moema, 28, and his friends came to Camps Bay beach.
But what started out as a day of fun for this Soweto-born telecommunications engineer would change his life forever after he slammed his head into a sandbank during low tide – an accident that left him paralysed from his neck down.
“We were so excited that day. My friends and I were diving for a few hours already. Just before the game we decided to go for our last dive, and that’s when things went wrong. I dived into the wave with my arms stretched and went head first. That’s probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever done because suddenly there was a sandbank which was not there before. The tide must have got lower,” he said.
Moema is one of the many diving accident victims being treated at Groote Schuur Hospital’s Acute Spinal Cord Injury Unit.
The unit, which treats about 200 cases of post traumatic spinal cord injuries, treats an average of six patients a year who sustain severe neck injuries due to diving accidents.
Dr Juliette Stander, a spinal cord injury expert who is treating Moema, said the summer season was the busiest time at the unit, with 75 percent of diving accident patients treated there admitted between November and February.
Most were young males, between the ages of 13 and 25. Stander said most injuries occurred at beaches, dams, rivers, tidal pools and swimming pools.
The unit treated mostly car crash victims (about 45 percent) followed by falls at 15 percent, gunshot wounds at 14 percent and stab wounds at nine percent.
Assaults and diving accidents accounted for 4 percent of cases, respectively.
While other hospitals, including private hospitals, managed minor spinal injuries, the Groote Schuur unit was the only specialised unit in the country that treated acute post traumatic spinal injuries.
Stander said while some accidents were unavoidable, diving accidents were completely preventable. “Diving accidents are 100 percent preventable as long as you don’t dive head first.
“We always advise people to dive feet first. That’s the safest way to dive. Often people don’t know what is happening underneath the surface of water. While they may be diving in high tide the surface is okay to dive in, but in the case of tidal pools and the ocean, a change in tide can mean that there is suddenly a sandbank and often people hit their heads against it, breaking their necks, causing a compression to their spinal cords,” she said.
Not only did diving accident victims often lose their ability to move, most ended up having lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia as such accidents were near-drownings.
“Within a second your whole life changes,
MONDAY DECEMBER 14
2015 and for many it results in lengthy hospitalisation of up to six months. It’s also emotionally taxing to the accident victims and their families. More than 50 percent of neck injuries result in complete quadriplegia.”
If someone is injured in a diving accident, contact Emergency Medical Services, immediately and ensure that their neck is stabilised.