Injury caused by helmet

Sue White

Not a cyling accident, but an interesting injury apparently caused by a
helmet:

Fracture of proximal humerus

This seems to be a popular injury this season. I'm just back from the
East where I spent a long weekend skiing NH with a friend from Boston.
Well, it would have been a long weekend if he hadn't broken his Proximal
humerus (aka broken shoulder) on Friday. As it is, it looks like he's
started a trend.

The operant theory is that he bashed his shoulder with his helmet when
he went down. Not exactly sure, since nobody saw the fall and he's not
sure what happened. The theory stems from the fact that his helmet was
the hardest thing around at the time. Plausible, but ultimately
unprovable.

--
Sue ]

What goes down must come up again - Confucius' Law of Mountain Biking

gearoidmuar

To break his shoulder with his helmet, assuming that he was wearing it, he
would have to break his neck first.

This theory is easily dismissed.

See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when it's on you
head.

Eiron

gearoidmuar wrote:

> To break his shoulder with his helmet, assuming that he was wearing it, he
> would have to break his neck first.
>
> This theory is easily dismissed.
>
> See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when it's on you
> head.

It works with motorcycle helmets and collar bones,
requiring no broken necks.

--
Eiron.

BigRab

> > See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when
it's on you
> > head.
>
> It works with motorcycle helmets and collar bones,
> requiring no broken necks.
Yeah, but a full face helmet can quite easily strike the collar bone
with the chin piece whereas an open faced one won't.

Roberto

Roos Eisma

"gearoidmuar" <glee@iol.ie> writes:

>To break his shoulder with his helmet, assuming that he was wearing it, he
>would have to break his neck first.

>This theory is easily dismissed.

>See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when it's on you
>head.

The proximal humerus is the top of the upper arm - it means the ball that
forms the join breaks off. It is not hard to imagine that if you raise
your arm and hit a helmetted head against the arm just past the shoulder
that you break the arm away from the joint. You don't need to hit the
shoulder itself. (For example, some Googling gave 'falling on an
outstretched hand" as a possible cause)

And fwiw, I looked at a ski forum the other day and came across a helmet
discussion almost identical to the ones here

Roos

Richard

gearoidmuar wrote:
> To break his shoulder with his helmet, assuming that he was wearing it, he
> would have to break his neck first.
>
> This theory is easily dismissed.
>
> See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when it's on you
> head.

Easily, if your arm is vertical compared to your body.

R.

Not Responding

Roos Eisma wrote:
> "gearoidmuar" <glee@iol.ie> writes:
>
>
>>To break his shoulder with his helmet, assuming that he was wearing it, he
>>would have to break his neck first.
>
>
>>This theory is easily dismissed.
>
>
>>See if any of you can touch your shoulder with your helmet when it's on you
>>head.
>
>
> The proximal humerus is the top of the upper arm - it means the ball that
> forms the join breaks off.

That's what happened to me. And as an added bonus, I got to have the
ball split in two halves. No helmet involved with mine, though.

>It is not hard to imagine that if you raise
> your arm and hit a helmetted head against the arm just past the shoulder
> that you break the arm away from the joint. You don't need to hit the
> shoulder itself. (For example, some Googling gave 'falling on an
> outstretched hand" as a possible cause)
>
> And fwiw, I looked at a ski forum the other day and came across a helmet
> discussion almost identical to the ones here
>
> Roos
>

Blippie

>It is not hard to imagine that if you raise
>your arm and hit a helmetted head against the arm just past the shoulder
>that you break the arm away from the joint.

Assuming the helmet is significantly stronger than the bone.

>You don't need to hit the
>shoulder itself. (For example, some Googling gave 'falling on an
>outstretched hand" as a possible cause)

Called a "FOOSH".

It's the most common cause of fractures to the distal radius and collarbone.

Cheers

Blippie
--
Ten minutes of this rain will do more good in half an hour than a fortnight
of ordinary rain in a month.

dkahn400

Not Responding wrote:
> Roos Eisma wrote:

> > The proximal humerus is the top of the upper arm - it means
> > the ball that forms the join breaks off.
>
> That's what happened to me. And as an added bonus, I got to
> have the ball split in two halves.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! (And for good measure, ouch!)

--
Dave...

jonesjjff@hotmail.com

Me too. It happened in attempting to prevent myself from falling by
reaching with an outstretched arm on a concrete post (no helmet);
resulted in a fractured humerus and two partly ripped rotator cuffs.
Fracture healed on its own but the cuffs are still painful 6 months
later.Fortunately it doesn't affect my cycling.

mark

"Sue White" wrote
> Not a cyling accident, but an interesting injury apparently caused by a
> helmet:
>
> Fracture of proximal humerus
>
> This seems to be a popular injury this season. I'm just back from the
> East where I spent a long weekend skiing NH with a friend from Boston.
> Well, it would have been a long weekend if he hadn't broken his Proximal
> humerus (aka broken shoulder) on Friday. As it is, it looks like he's
> started a trend.
>
> The operant theory is that he bashed his shoulder with his helmet when
> he went down. Not exactly sure, since nobody saw the fall and he's not
> sure what happened. The theory stems from the fact that his helmet was
> the hardest thing around at the time. Plausible, but ultimately
> unprovable.
>
> --
> Sue ]


Dislocated shoulders have been fairly common in skiing and snowboarding
since long before anyone started wearing helmets for recreational skiing
snowboarding. ISTM that the same mechanism that dislocates a shoulder could
just as easily cause a fractured proximal humerus, depending of the relative
strength of one's bones and connective tissue/muscles.

John Pitcock

A young colleague was mowing the lawn, it started raining, his helmet was to
hand so he put it on. Went under a tree, mis-judged clearance, helmet hit
branch, broke neck!

"Sue White" <Sue@blackhole.invalid> wrote in message
news:Vbzc9qIkFiwBFw8Y@mashtub.demon.co.uk...
> Not a cycling accident, but an interesting injury apparently caused by a
> helmet:
>