re tbpi and seatbelts-one study found that 1% of all personal injury trauma victims admitted to hospital had tbpi-on road accident figures ALONE that would translate to around 27,000 tbpi in the USA anually, tbpi is sadly extremely common. Of course, many of those victims would not have tbpi if they had not been wearing seatbelts-they would be dead. Crash helmets have been implicated in tbpi too, as they force the angle between the head and shoulder in an accident, which often causes tbpi. Again, maybe no bpi without the helmet, but also a hugely increased chance of death! Talk about a rock and a hard place.....
I used a guide on my last car to keep the seat belt off my plexus, otherwise any sudden stop would cause the belt to put pressure on my brachial plexus area which would sometimes lead to days of pain. I had a lap belt in an old car I had, not as safe but boy was it more comfortable!
As a person with a tbpi I am always extremely aware that travelling on the roads is the single most dangerous thing most of us ever do, be careful out there, because there will be someone else who's not being careful......:0)
Toddler Car seats w/BPI
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jennyb
- Posts: 1183
- Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:24 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: January 1980 Yamaha RD200 vs 16 wheeler truck, result, 1 totally paralysed right arm. I was 21, now 54. I had no surgery, I don't regret this. Decided to totally ignore limitations (easily done aged 21) adapted very quickly to one handed life, got married, had 3 kids, worked- the effect of the injury on my life (once the pain stopped being constant) was minimal and now, aged 54, I very rarely even think of it, unless I bash it or it gets cold, then I wish I'd had it amputated :) Except for a steering knob on my car, I have no adaptations to help with life, mainly because I honestly don't think of myself as disabled and the only thing I can't do is peel potatoes, which is definitely a good thing.
Re: Toddler Car seats w/BPI
Jenny,
Could tell me where to find a copy of that study. I was speaking to the organization that I received my child safety training from and they had not heard any specific reports regarding a BPI injury. Do you know if that study is from seat belts or just vehical crashes?
I agree that this a rock and a hard place. I am curious about this guide you mentioned... how did it work? And if it as on your last car what do you use now to help with that same situation?
Thanks,
Kristie
Could tell me where to find a copy of that study. I was speaking to the organization that I received my child safety training from and they had not heard any specific reports regarding a BPI injury. Do you know if that study is from seat belts or just vehical crashes?
I agree that this a rock and a hard place. I am curious about this guide you mentioned... how did it work? And if it as on your last car what do you use now to help with that same situation?
Thanks,
Kristie
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jennyb
- Posts: 1183
- Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:24 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: January 1980 Yamaha RD200 vs 16 wheeler truck, result, 1 totally paralysed right arm. I was 21, now 54. I had no surgery, I don't regret this. Decided to totally ignore limitations (easily done aged 21) adapted very quickly to one handed life, got married, had 3 kids, worked- the effect of the injury on my life (once the pain stopped being constant) was minimal and now, aged 54, I very rarely even think of it, unless I bash it or it gets cold, then I wish I'd had it amputated :) Except for a steering knob on my car, I have no adaptations to help with life, mainly because I honestly don't think of myself as disabled and the only thing I can't do is peel potatoes, which is definitely a good thing.
Re: Toddler Car seats w/BPI
Hi Kristie.
I found reference to the paper about trauma injuries on this page http://ots.utoronto.ca/users/howardg/nerveinjury.html
it's in the section headed 'emergency room evaluation' or something.......it refers to ALL accident hospital admissions through trauma related incidents, that would presumably mean traffic accidents, falls, gunshots......he says 5% of these admissions involve nerve injury, and 1% of them involve bpi.
The paper is by Dr R Midha and I have found references to it in several other places but not read the full paper. As in most of these things, I would guess that a fair amount of conjecture is involved, as it is in obpi figures. There is also evidence that there is under reporting of injuries which do not require initial ER treatment, such as the 'burners' and 'stingers' suffered by (according to one paper) 65% of football players...these are all tbpi. Sadly, I don't think these injuries are necessarily reported to the seat belt manufacturers-seat belts do save lives but in the process other injuries such as tbpi are caused-it's not a failing on the part of the seat belt but a result of a high velocity accident in which an unbelted person would be killed.
I have also got into long dialogues with air bag manufacturers about the risk of tbpi, there is a lot of evidence that in smaller framed people where the airbag is activated at slow speeds there is a serious risk, there are many case studies on this yet every manufacturer I contacted said it was 'extremely rare' (ha where have you obpi parents heard THAT before?). For myself, altho I ALWAYS use a seatbelt I would never drive a car with an airbag.
The guides i had on my previous car were the kind some booster seats use, with heavy duty 'poppers' holding the belt off the plexus area. They were put in by a friend, just because of the discomfort really-I'm not too worried about further injury as frankly my bpi couldn't actually be any worse! :0) I haven't got round to doing this here in NZ, having said that, the roads here are a whole different ball game than the UK and I haven't had to do an 'emergency stop' in the 2 years I've been here, plus in my current car the seat angle seems to direct the belt to a more comfortable spot.
I found reference to the paper about trauma injuries on this page http://ots.utoronto.ca/users/howardg/nerveinjury.html
it's in the section headed 'emergency room evaluation' or something.......it refers to ALL accident hospital admissions through trauma related incidents, that would presumably mean traffic accidents, falls, gunshots......he says 5% of these admissions involve nerve injury, and 1% of them involve bpi.
The paper is by Dr R Midha and I have found references to it in several other places but not read the full paper. As in most of these things, I would guess that a fair amount of conjecture is involved, as it is in obpi figures. There is also evidence that there is under reporting of injuries which do not require initial ER treatment, such as the 'burners' and 'stingers' suffered by (according to one paper) 65% of football players...these are all tbpi. Sadly, I don't think these injuries are necessarily reported to the seat belt manufacturers-seat belts do save lives but in the process other injuries such as tbpi are caused-it's not a failing on the part of the seat belt but a result of a high velocity accident in which an unbelted person would be killed.
I have also got into long dialogues with air bag manufacturers about the risk of tbpi, there is a lot of evidence that in smaller framed people where the airbag is activated at slow speeds there is a serious risk, there are many case studies on this yet every manufacturer I contacted said it was 'extremely rare' (ha where have you obpi parents heard THAT before?). For myself, altho I ALWAYS use a seatbelt I would never drive a car with an airbag.
The guides i had on my previous car were the kind some booster seats use, with heavy duty 'poppers' holding the belt off the plexus area. They were put in by a friend, just because of the discomfort really-I'm not too worried about further injury as frankly my bpi couldn't actually be any worse! :0) I haven't got round to doing this here in NZ, having said that, the roads here are a whole different ball game than the UK and I haven't had to do an 'emergency stop' in the 2 years I've been here, plus in my current car the seat angle seems to direct the belt to a more comfortable spot.