| dc.description.abstract | Abstract— According to the World Health
Organization, 250,000 – 500,000 people suffer
from spinal cord injuries around the world
every year, of which up to 90% are traumatic
and preventable. Here we discuss a unique case
scenario occurred during traditional Sinhala
and Tamil New Year festival. It is a common
practice to organize ‘new year games’ during
this season of which climbing of ‘sliding tree’ is
a popular game. However there has been a
recent trend to replace this with a different
event, where a flag is hung at a high level and a
group of people have to make a pyramid where
the person at the top has to grab the flag. Our
patient, a 55 year old farmer, after consumption
of substantial amount of alcohol, was forming
the base of the pyramid with a group of his
friends. On their shoulders, they were bearing
the weight of their friends forming two more
stories up. Suddenly one person on the top lost
his balance and fell on the head of this patient.
Our patient was fallen on the ground and could
not get up or move his limbs. He was taken to the
local hospital on a three wheeler from where he
was transferred to the National Hospital of Sri
Lanka. He was quadriplegic with weak
diaphragmatic breathing, and computed
tomography revealed grade III
spondylolysthesis of fourth cervical vertebra
over the fifth. With clinical and radiological
features of complete cord transection, he
succumbed to death within hours of admission.
Making human pyramids by ordinary people
without a formal training can be extremely
dangerous, especially when they are under the
influence of alcohol. We strongly suggest that
such games should be banned and not allowed
among ordinary people.
Keywords— Cervical spine injury, Sri Lanka | en_US |
