All-Star News Show On Cheer Safety

[MyGirlCheers]

RIP Ashley Burns

Yes, Ashley was another flyer this happened to :( , but more recently than the story I was referring to. Her mother is trying to get a law passed to make the vests mandatory.

 

[MyGirlCheers]

The girl who died from the spleen rupture had mono, but chose to stunt anyway. That is another discussion for another day, but we definitely need to get better about putting health first. I initially thought about that vest too, but after I read more about CC it seems that protective padding doesn't actually help. In hockey and baseball (along with animal studies) chest protectors haven't led to a reduction in incidences of CC. I read that at least 20% of incidents occur with the child wearing protective chest plates.

I'm sorry to hear the vests don't offer enough (any?) protection. Do you know of any studies comparing the outcomes over time with athletes using vests vs non-vest wearers. Any idea of the percentage of catastrophic injury in the respective groups? Is there a statistically significant difference?

There have been several spleen ruptures - did they all have mono?

 

[CheerMom69]

The same points that Kingston and others have made before are made again in this so there wasn't anything groundbreaking, but it is great to raise awareness.
Safer surfaces/equipment, proper technique and extensive, hands-on coaches training, are all absolutely 100% necessary. Now, how do we go about making them standard?

Which is why it really bothers me that so many highly thought of EP's still use dead floors for their school cheer competitions. Cheerleaders shouldn't have to perform on a dead floor when spring floors are readily available. Why increase the risk? Our own industry needs to put that safety first before we expect schools across the nation too.

 

[King]

Requiring spring floors for EP's is creating a high barrier to entry for schools though. That part I understand. How many schools (high or college including teaming up with allstar gyms) can really afford to have access to spring floor. Requiring spring floor (and by requiring I mean if you are competing on spring floor you are in turn requiring the teams practicing to have spring floor) means the potential pool of teams competing is going to be a lot smaller.

I do think though it is an eventuality that all cheerleading will be on spring.

 

[CheerMom69]

Requiring spring floors for EP's is creating a high barrier to entry for schools though. That part I understand. How many schools (high or college including teaming up with allstar gyms) can really afford to have access to spring floor. Requiring spring floor (and by requiring I mean if you are competing on spring floor you are in turn requiring the teams practicing to have spring floor) means the potential pool of teams competing is going to be a lot smaller.

I do think though it is an eventuality that all cheerleading will be on spring.

Maybe because I live in a big city, I see a cheer gym or gymnastics place on every corner and all the school's cheer teams bus to the nearest ones. I did grow up in a small town though, and even there we had one place that taught gymnastics and thus had a spring floor. When I look at the teams that competed at NCA Nationals in Dallas last weekend, it sure looks like to me that the majority of those teams are somewhat close to an all star gym or a gymnastics facility. The families may have to pay tuition or a bus fee, but it is doable and at least in our city it's not that expensive ($65-$75 /month for once per week training). I do think the pool of teams that would be competing would be smaller, but I don't think by "a lot". As an EP, I would worry less about losing 10-20 schools at my next Nationals and more about how the industry as a whole will begin to shrink if parents & schools start backing out of the competitive aspect of school cheer. That would really hurt the EP's long term. No dead floors seems to be a step in the right direction (if nothing else we can stop seeing the video of the dummy dropped on the hard floor and shattering to pieces). I love the All-star community and defend it heavily when my non-cheer friends see my daughter fly and call me crazy, but this is one area where our industry could show the public we are putting safety first.

 

[ashscott41]

I'm sorry to hear the vests don't offer enough (any?) protection. Do you know of any studies comparing the outcomes over time with athletes using vests vs non-vest wearers. Any idea of the percentage of catastrophic injury in the respective groups? Is there a statistically significant difference?

There have been several spleen ruptures - did they all have mono?

This article seems to be quite comprehensive and may answer your questions about CC better than I can Commotio Cordis. In other sports, the chest protectors are designed to prevent a number of problems, not specifically CC. I would guess they have prevented thousands of possible injuries unrelated to CC. Are your questions about studies referring to a vest being protective from any/all problems or CC? Obviously the protective equipment in other sports is important, just as mats are in cheer.

The article I linked above references 128 CC cases. Of these, 106 cases were from sports. Other cases included a sledding accident and a girl getting hit by her dog. The story involving Patty is the only CC incident I could find resulting from cheer. 38% of the cases occurring from organized sports happened while the child was wearing a chest protector. Overall, the survival rate following CC is only 15% and I believe all CC cases are considered catastrophic. Those that do survive have frequently had AEDs used on them immediately following injury. CC is just so rare and can happen from any kind of freak accident that unfortunately I have been unable to find the answers to your questions.

A portion of the profits from the cheer vest go to a foundation set up by the family of a girl who had mono and died from a spleen laceration. I am unfamiliar with any other cases, but since you had mentioned the vest I assumed that you were talking about the same case. I am by no means an expert on anything healthcare or cheer related. I'm only a twenty something who wants to improve cheerleading so future athletes don't have the problems I do. Sorry if I was unable to answer your questions.

 

[weheartcheer]

I saw a show years ago - before CP ever even thought about cheering (so at least 10 years ago) - about a flyer who was caught and it ruptured her spleen. I think it was an under rotated full down or double down (or maybe a twisting toss, but definitely only a level 3 or 4 skill). They caught her on her side/front instead of her back. It seems a catch like this could also cause commotio cordis. I remember in the show, the girl's dad had developed a vest to be worn when flyers were learning skills where an improper catch could lead to that type of injury. I wonder if the vest would also protect from freak cardiac accidents - I know there's a padded chest protector for baseball players to prevent commotio cordis.

A portion of the profits from the cheer vest go to a foundation set up by the family of a girl who had mono and died from a spleen laceration. I am unfamiliar with any other cases, but since you had mentioned the vest I assumed that you were talking about the same case.

I pretty sure MyGirlCheers is referring to Ashley Burns; it was a news clip, or maybe the E! True Hollywood Story episode, featuring Ashley Burn's mother, Ruth, and the guy who owns CoreAthletics. Ruth endorsed the vest until she received one and found the inside tag read "intended only to reduce the risk of accidental injury to the covered chest area during no contact or light contact martial arts sparring supervised by a qualified instructor." That vest is NOT made for cheerleading.

 

[cheernerd5678]

I fear if something isn't done to reduce the number of costly injuries, cheerleading will become taboo in the insurance world. In less than a year we have had a CT scan, a dislocated knee cap (MRI needed to find bone chip that broke off), and 2 x-rays to the same wrist. The insurance companies have to be crunching the numbers to find out how much this is costing them.

Definitely... In one year when I broke my arms I had x rays done on both, then another at the orthopedist, surgery, x ray, surgery, then all my follow up x rays. So 3 x rays + follow ups = at least 6 x rays, X2 if you count it for each arm. So 6 sets of x rays, 12 total, plus 2 surgeries. Plus later I was having issues with my arm so 2 more sets of x rays later. When my parents got the original bill after all my arm stuff it was over $10,000, but insurance covered all of it except the $50 co pay at the E.R.Thank you insurance!! And that wasn't even from anything unsafe, just the nature of the sport that accidents happen!
Eventually they're going to notice how many cheer injuries they cover each year, and they're not going to want to cover us... Freak accidents are always possible (like with my arms) but we can reduce the risk of injury in other areas. It may not keep me from breaking my arms, but if you keep 100 girls from spraining ankles b/c they aren't on the right surface, you have less injuries overall.

 

[Nothanks]

Definitely... In one year when I broke my arms I had x rays done on both, then another at the orthopedist, surgery, x ray, surgery, then all my follow up x rays. So 3 x rays + follow ups = at least 6 x rays, X2 if you count it for each arm. So 6 sets of x rays, 12 total, plus 2 surgeries. Plus later I was having issues with my arm so 2 more sets of x rays later. When my parents got the original bill after all my arm stuff it was over $10,000, but insurance covered all of it except the $50 co pay at the E.R.Thank you insurance!! And that wasn't even from anything unsafe, just the nature of the sport that accidents happen!
Eventually they're going to notice how many cheer injuries they cover each year, and they're not going to want to cover us... Freak accidents are always possible (like with my arms) but we can reduce the risk of injury in other areas. It may not keep me from breaking my arms, but if you keep 100 girls from spraining ankles b/c they aren't on the right surface, you have less injuries overall.

I've never had any truly serious (knock on wood) accidents...I've had a lot of bad accidents though, and apparently at one point my dad told me the insurance was threatening to drop us because I was so high-risk.

 

[catlady]

I've never had any truly serious (knock on wood) accidents...I've had a lot of bad accidents though, and apparently at one point my dad told me the insurance was threatening to drop us because I was so high-risk.

I think we are going to see more of this. We received a form from the insurance company inquiring about the type of injury for my cp's CT Scan. They were fishing to find out if it was auto or work related, however, I put down "gym" for "location" and received a call to find out what type of gym. I put down "athletic activity" as to what caused the accident and they wanted to know the specific activity she was doing.

 

[xtremeteal4life]

Yes, that 50-joules can even be lowered if the person is under ischemic conditions, which is when blood flow is restricted. Can happen from drug use, sickle cell, as well as induced g-forces like acrobatics and military flying.

A similar situation happened here in Greensboro at a local college. It's predominately African-American and apparently they are supposed to test for sickle cell prior to trying out for any NCAA team (I believe). Well apparently there was an email sent out requesting them to NOT be tested until an athlete actually made a team. I think that's the second sickle cell related death at that school regarding athletics if memory serves.
North Carolina A&T Fires Official Over Sickle Cell Death - Higher Education

 

[ashscott41]

Cheerleading: A rapidly growing, yet overlooked sport - Boston Sports Medicine | Examiner.com This article came across my RSS feed this morning and I thought it was pretty well written. If a sports writer with no knowledge of cheer can recognize the problems with our sport, why can't we take the appropriate steps to change these problems?

I found this part to be particularly interesting: "Although the injury rate per 1000 exposures to the sport is only 0.9 (a figure that is significantly lower than most other sports), the rate of catastrophic injury is between 0.5 and 1.62 (a figure that is significantly higher than sports such as soccer, field hockey, basketball and gymnastics). This data suggests that cheerleaders are injured less often than other athletes, but when the injuries occur, they are more likely to be severe in nature. This has been attributed to the types of stunts performed and the surfaces in which the stunts are performed on."

While I hate seeing cheer portrayed as a dangerous activity, hopefully these news stories will continue to come out and spread awareness needed to make changes