Crossfit Coach Severed Spine :-(

Skky2012

This is awful. I know accidents happen but this is where we need to remember safety first! I have actually suffered from a few injuries myself including coma for months and now a broken foot helped along by the ex and really you do not understand what you got till its gone do not take it for granted. I thought my life was bad sleeping in my car some nights because of dumb fights or not being able to get a good nutritious meal because of the fact I could not afford it!! But now that he helped me break my leg, I really understand the things we take for granted! It is so hard when I am a go go go person and now I sit all day and try and get a work out in everyonce in a while!

EvgeniZyntx

His support website

http://kevinogar.com

bostonwolf

I wasn't dissing him. Football, hockey, basketball, all the sports have broken heros. I was just saying that doing that kind of job without insurance is kind of irresponsible. That's all. It's not a client issue or anything. I mean, it's all on him. It's horrible, the whole thing is horrible. And, it's great that people are coming to his aid with cash, but that will run out as the med bills continue. So, I don't know. It's just very irresponsible to be doing that without insurance.

I completely agree. Athletes of any kind should really have insurance.

I do not want to make this political, but as of 1/1/14 he cannot be denied insurance for a pre-existing condition. So that really shouldn't be much of an issue. He can sign up right now and get treatment that is covered at least to some extent.

bostonwolf

That's rough. I'm trying to understand what happened. Did the plates land on his back?

Johnny, he missed the snatch and lost the bar backwards and fell straight down. There was a stack of plates too close behind him. The bar hit that and rebounded very hard into his back.

There is a video of the incident. It's not super graphic but you can see his legs go limp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWJapBpKrQA

jonnythan

That's rough. I'm trying to understand what happened. Did the plates land on his back?

Johnny, he missed the snatch and lost the bar backwards and fell straight down. There was a stack of plates too close behind him. The bar hit that and rebounded very hard into his back.

There is a video of the incident. It's not super graphic but you can see his legs go limp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWJapBpKrQA

Oh I get it now. When I first saw the video, I thought the bar stopped short because it hit his back, but I see that the plates on the bar landed on the edge of the stack of bumper plates, launching it straight into his back. Wow.

sfbaumgarten

Ouch :indifferent:

besaro

snatch.

lizziebeth1028

Um, I guess I'm going to have to be the one to say it, doing that kind of work, and uninsured? Really?

You beat me to it!

somefitsomefat

That's sad, but how was he allowed to work as a coach without health insurance? I believe it's a requirement in the UK if you want to be a Personal Trainer.

It's America, we are free to do whatever we wa--...oh wait, NVM.

Under Obamacare, he is required under federal law to have health insurance. So in the eyes of the U.S. government, he is a lawbreaker injured in the commission of a misdemeanor. Literally adding insult to injury, the government will have to fine him for not having insurance.

this sounds uninformed

They're not enforcing that deadline, correct? Maybe that's just what I've gathered through bits and pieces of news. I am covered through my job so I haven't looked in to it much.

BinaryPulsar

Ooooh, so terrible!!! :frown: :brokenheart:

lizziebeth1028

one bad snatch and your life is ruined

I really should not have laughed at this :blushing:

ItsCasey

Anyway, I hope all the Crossfit haters will have some respect - a young athlete may never walk again and I personally think it's in VERY bad taste to bring that crap into this thread.

Agree with this. I am no fan of the general idea of Crossfit, but using a guy who may never walk again to pound your chest about how you're a better human being because you train differently is disgusting.

miqisha

So sad, my prayers to him big time. Such a sad thing.

auddii

That's rough. I'm trying to understand what happened. Did the plates land on his back?

When he bailed the lift he let the bar go behind him and fell over backward, as near as I can tell:
[somewhat graphic] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWJapBpKrQA

I read on one of the Crossfit discussion forums that the bar bounced off those bumper plates, rolled back and hit him, and that is when he reacted visibly. Terrible accident. Also read that this event followed several others, including three miles of running with kettlebells (2/1/0), so I'm guessing fatigue might have played a role. This was either a 3RM snatch or a snatch ladder? But reportedly it was his first rep. Big point being made over there is the importance of having public safety personnel on alert. We always had to do that for our high school football games, makes sense to me.

@jof, I see no torches or pitchforks on this thread....

It looks mostly like a problem of not having a clear work space. In a competition you would think a lot of people would be pushing to their max, and so I would expect bail outs to be a fairly regular thing. Looking at the lifting station next to him set up the exact same way, they're lucky it only happened once.

That said, I cannot even imagine going through that. It's amazing that the entire community has stepped up to help him, and hopefully his recovery goes much better than expected.

Lyerin

What a horrible, tragic accident. I feel badly for that young man and his family.

mgorham13

First and foremost, I hope Kevin and his family get through this and we can all celebrate him walking again some day soon!

This scares me and focuses me at the same time, if a trained professional can suffer from an accident like this what does it mean for the rest of us. I don't do crossfit but I do squats and overhead presses rows, dead lifts etc all can lead to injury if you are not focused or listening to your body.

I don't understand the whole insurance debate. It's not that he was training others without liability insurance, it's that he does not have personal medical insurance ( like millions of Americans) which is why money is being raised to help with his medical bills which by the time he is done will be in the hundreds of thousands.

WVprankster

Though CrossFit injury numbers vary, studies have pegged the CrossFit injury rate from as low as 16 percent to as high as 74 percent.

That's an interesting statistic.

...that's entirely true because A, it's on the internet, where all true facts are, and B, that's assuming a +/- ten percent margin of error:huh:

bostonwolf

There is some talk now that the bar never hit him. That he had a pre-existing stress fracture in one of his vertebrae that broke under the strain of the snatch.

Not sure if I believe that, but the weight was not excessive for someone in his condition.

MrGonzo05

Terrible

jonnythan

The bar very, very clearly rebounded off the bumper plates and struck him directly in the back.