Spinal Injuries Essay, Research Paper

Spinal injuries are a very serious, and even life-threatening, problem

facing almost everyone at some point in there lives. If a broken vertebra

pinches a spinal nerve, paralysis may result. The spine is a column of vertebrae

stacked one on the next from the skull?s base to the tail bone. Each vertebra

is hollow through the center where the spinal cord runs through. There are some

signs and symptoms that you should check for if you suspect spinal injury on an

injured person. Head injuries may indicate that the head may have been snapped

in one of more directions. If the victim is conscious, ask them if they feel a

pain when they move their arms or legs. Also, the victim may feel numbness,

tingling, weakness, or burning in their arms of legs. They may also lose control

of their bowls or bladder. However, deformity or an odd looking angle of the

head serves as the best clue to a serious spinal injury. If the victim is

unconscious, you should check for cuts, bruises and deformities; that may serve

as a good clue to spinal injuries. You should also test their responses by

pinching their hands and feet. If no reaction occurs, spinal injury is likely.

The first and most important thing you should do is keep the victim immobile at

all times. The only exeption to that would be if the victim is in a dangerous

place such a burning building or car. The second first aid procedure you should

administer would be monitoring the breathing by using a ?jaw thrust.? Be

sure to keep the head and neck still. Victims usually required a neck splint,

but one should not be put on by you. It takes at least two trained EMS people to

put a neck brace on. Since you can not put on a brace, you should stabilize

their neck by putting objects on both sides of the neck. Float the victim gently

to shore and place them on a backboard in the water if they are in water. The

only real precaution that you should take to avoid a spinal injury is to think

before you act. Don?t do anything risky that may put you into a situation like

this; that includes lifting thing that may be too heavy for you to lift safely.

One mistake and you could be in a wheelchair or a bed for the rest of your life.

-Fifteen to twenty percent of head injury victims also have neck or spinal cord

injuries -The spine is made up of thirty three cylindrical bones. -The cervical,

thoracic, lumbar, sacrum, and coccyx are the main parts of the vertebrae.

(Lumbar is the most commonly injured.)