Date of Injury: 2-3-09
Time of injury: 13:00
DOB;age: 4/4/92;16
City/State: Orlando, Fl
Experience: 1 year
hours of training per week: 1-2
other fitness experiece: Brown belt in Pai Lum Kung-Fu
location: school
I was running on a rail that I have run across many times before(though not in the past month or so) with no problems. At the end of the rail was a low brick wall about 2 feet high. Once across the rail, my foot caught the wall and I fell. I was able to get my hand down first(though if I were thinking clearly at the time I would have done a side break-fall) and did - unintentionally - a roll, most likely the world's sloppiest roll ever. I got up right away and felt fine, aside from a big bruise on my left leg. This happened on my way to lunch.
I went into the cafeteria and did my usual lunch routine with the pizza and powerade. Once I finished eating, I began to feel weak and light-headed. This rapidly deteriorated to being on the edge of losing consciousness. My vision was going, as was my hearing, and according to everyone around me my face was almost colorless. Two of the teachers and several of my friends brought some juice and a cool rag and helped me NOT pass out. I never lost consciousness but it took almost all of my strength to bring the little juice thing to my mouth. Once I was a bit more stable, my friends - the 2 who were with me when i fell(neither of them are interested in parkour or free-running) - helped me to the office.
My mom came and drove me to the ER because we didn't know the extent of the head trauma. We got X-rays taken of my wrist which revealed that I had in fact broken a small bone in my wrist. It was such a rare occurance to break this particular bone that the doctor couldn't remember its name(sorry insurance companies)! I also had a very minor concussion.
I think it is also important to share my level of expereience. I am by no means going to call myself a traceur. I am at best a parkour/free-running hobbyist. I dedicate almost no time to any serious training in this discipline and only share this story as a reminder that no matter how many times you have done something, you still have the chance of messing up on something easy. I can do a frontflip from a 10 foot high wall in my school gym but still got a concussion and a broken wrist from a 2 foot high brick wall.
This injury would have been very easy to avoid. I didn't take the time to line up my jump onto the rail which put me off balance from the start. In addition, I was wearing my backpack wasn't all that heavy but helped to throw me off even more.
Altogether this was a poorly planned and poorly executed manuever. Neither of my injuries are noticeable externally, so I have no attached picture. For the sake of any insurance companies who decide to read this, my doctor gave me a velcro cast to immobilize my hand and pain medication should I need it. I have not needed it as of yet. This is my first real injury due to anything parkour related.
Finally, I apologize for any typos or errors in my post, but i DID just have a concussion and am typing this all with my left hand.
