United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

very interesting..............I live one hour north of Chicago. This is close to home.
Kath

I've read a paper where it says that 65% of college football players receive bpi injuries (albeit usually milder than this one) in their careers, and 87% of those get another bpi...it's very common. Tbpi is huge, there are thousands every year, almost all young people.

Jonny Wilkinson, probably the best known English rugby player got one just after the Rugby World cup (rugby is similar to American football, except the participants don't strap 3 piece lounge suites to themselves during play ) and took months to get back to fitness. More and more parents here in New Zealand where rugby is our national sport don't let their kids play because of the injury risks. Our local hospital ER is packed every Saturday afternoon with young guys strapped to backboards after rugby injury. Scary.
Thanks for the story Rich.
Jen NZ

It is not that common here in Northern illinois. My husband has played football since 5th grade, all through HS (State champs 1986!!!) and 3 years of college (until a knee injury) and coached HS football for 13 years........never heard this TYPE of injury in our area. Thank God. Believe me he has seen his share of injuries more severe than BPI. In fact when my injury happened not one doctor (keep in mind I live in the Chicago area) has ever heard of my injury. Therefore I was sent to Mayo Clinic to the world known, former CEO of Mayo Clinic, Dr. Wood. My son is going to be a Football player like his father and I am sure my other son will walk in those foot steps. I pray they never will suffer this life long painful injury!!!

I think they are commonly called 'stingers' and most recover very quickly, I'm surprised he's never seen a stinger in all those years. A stinger is a bpi.

I'll have to ask him. My injury, however, with my nerves avulsed (C5,6 and 7) 20 yrs ago was not familiar to the area I live in.

A year ago i was injury playing football just like the player in the article. I had avulsed C5,C6, C7,C8 and T1. Where i live in Toronto it was unheard of to have this happen this bad playing football but it goes to show you anything can happen in life. I'm hoping to regain some use of my arm back but i know it takes time.

I asked my husband and he was very familiar with a "stinger"; in fact he had plenty of them. We did not know that it fell in the category of a BPI. But the nerves being avulsed?? He has never seen or heard of that in our Northern Illinois area in football. Thanks for the info. My husband was surprised to know that it was linked.

Yes, a stinger's a bpi, as I said in my first post it's often a mild injury but some definitely are not, even those which aren't avulsions can cause long term paralysis, or just a prolonged spell on the bench, like Jonny Wilkinson. It's important to realise that most bpi (that is both obpi and tbpi) do not involve avulsions, that's a worst case scenario in bpi but any damage to the brachial plexus is a bpi.
There was an article in my local paper this weekend about the rugby injuries here because with a publicly funded health system taxpayers are paying for the treatment of these guys. In my city (pop. 500,000) there were 2 deaths in rugby last year through broken necks(!) and several spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis needing a wheelchair. Kiwis do like to play hard ball but still.....my son sticks to soccer!

Discussing this with rugby playing friends we were wondering if the protective equipment that stops the US gridiron players getting broken necks etc might contribute to the stingers-in motorcyclists it has been suggested by doctors that although crash helmets undoubtedly save lives (I'd be dead now if I hadn't been wearing one)the unnatural angle at which the head can be forced away from the shoulders on impact because of the helmet could actually cause or exacerbate a bpi.But even if that's the case I guess most people would rather have a bpi than a broken neck

Wouldn't that be great??? However, in illinois there is no helmet law! In fact, I was not wearing one and my boyfriend was and he was killed as a result of massive head injuries. Sad as it is, there are no guarantees.

About the stingers, my husband has no record of permit paralysis to any player he has played with or coached. How lucky we are!!! Rugby vs football? no comparison-rugby is a dangerous sport.