Trampoline Safety Reminder

We had one MAJOR scary incident last summer (2007)!! My 10 yr old at the time (now 11) son was jumping on the trampoline by himself and did a back flip, the flip was flawless…it was the landing that did him in. He landed accidentally on his knees and was thrown backwards. He started yelling and Mr. B ran out to get him. Had we known how serious the injury was at the time we would’ve called the ambulance. We thought he might’ve pulled a muscle in his neck or had whiplash, he couldn’t move his head or walk. Mr. B carried him to the car and took him to the ER here on base. I stayed home with the other 2 kids, he called me 30 minutes later and said Boo had dislocated his neck! I was freaking out!! He dislocated his C1 and C2! The Dr’s said if it’d been an adult that he would’ve been paralyzed! When Mr. B called I ran my other 2 kids across the street to neighbors and rushed to the ER. I was so upset, I had NO idea you could dislocate your neck! He had to wear a C-collar for a week and thankfully by the end of the week it had moved back into place on its own without surgery. It was super uncomfortable for him to wear the c-collar while sleeping. Thankfully the staff at the ER had recently experienced this scenario with a 7 year old who dislocated it on one of those big bouncy houses so they immediately came out an put him in a c-collar and wheelchair and got him back without a wait. We were told by all the Dr’s to get rid of the trampoline as they are nothing but trouble and Boo was even on it by himself as your supposed to be. We still have the trampoline and it did get put back up in April. It’s now used mainly by the little kids, with no flips. It was a freak accident and I really don’t see something like that happening again…I hope! Back flips are no longer allowed. Thankfully God was watching over Boo because it could’ve turned out much worse!

I think the worst part of the ordeal was waiting to find out if it would resolve on it’s own or if we would be sent to a Japanese hospital for him to have surgery. There is so little information about this on the internet that while I scoured the internet for hours I found little answers. I did call the other mother here on base who’s daughter (7 yr old) had it happen from the bouncy castle to talk with her, as I knew she would be the only one here who could really understand what I was going through. I was happy to find out that her daughter had a successful recovery without surgery.

Today from looking at Boo you’d never know that the accident happened.

Notice how much his shoulders are slanted? And how crooked his neck is?

Only 4 days later and his neck was already moving back into alignment, see how the shoulders are almost normal again.