G • GENERAL STATISTICS AND LEGAL ASPECTS
629
In analysing the various causes of traumatic tetraplegia, as shown in Table 39 of a
statistic of 506 tetraplegics out of 2,078 traumatic spinal cord lesions (24-4 per cent)
comprising a period of 20 years between I February 1944 to 31 January 1964, road
accidents take, as one would expect, the first place, while sport injuries with HI cases
represent the second highest figure. Special attention must be drawn to the fact, that the
majority of sport injuries, namely 83 out of HI, were due to water sport and of these no
less than 74 occurred due to diving. If one realizes that diving accidents represent nearly
three-quarters of all sports injuries, and that the victims are almost always in the prime of
life, the youngest being only 13 years old, this is indeed a terrifying statistic. The most
important measure in dealing with these dreadful injuries in young people is, of course,
prevention, and it cannot be emphasized too strongly that this can only be achieved by
systematic education of the public generally. In as much as schoolchildren and young
adults are taught road safety measures to prevent accidents, the same should be applied
in schools and public swimming pools with regard to the hazard of diving even from the
lowest spring board and from the shallow end of a swimming pool. Moreover, when diving
is practised in swimming pools, no swimmer must be in the water within the diving
area because of the danger of being struck by the diver, as either the diver will break his
neck or the swimmer in the water will sustain a thoracic injury. Parents, school teachers
and swimming instructors should join in this educational problem of the public.
There is, moreover, another point in this connection where there is a great need for
improvement: there are too few and too inconspicuous warning notices placed by local
TABLE 40
MORTALITY
TOTAL MATERIAL
3OOO
CASES
496 deaths
= 16.51
343 corrected figure = 11.47.
TRAUMATIC PATIENTS
TOTAL 1963
331 deaths
=I6.9*/.
242 corrected figure - 12.
3"L
SERVICEMEN & PENSIONERS
CIVILIANS
TOTAL 753
TOTAL 12IO
ISO deaths
=23.9?.
151 deaths
= 12.57.
132 corrected figure
= 17.5A
MO corrected figure -
9.Olr
ANALYSIS OF SERVICEMEN & PENSIONERS
WORLD WAR I
TOTAL 67
39
deaths
=58.27.
15
corrected figure
= 22.4•/.
WORLD WAR II
TOTAL
468
125 deaths
=
26.77.
IO3 corrected figure = 22.07.
POST WAR PERIOD from 1946
= 7.37.
= 447.
