Compression Fracture from Jumping

My daughter has 26 jumps and the last 10 have been on one of the older Sabres. She complained of getting slam dunked on the first jump of the day last week and she was in enough pain after the jump that I had to finish packing her chute. Later in the day she felt better and she jumped 3 more times. We thought great no problems. However, the next day she did complain of some severe back pain and we went to the doctor. The X-ray showed a compression fracture of the L3 vertabrae.

She was told not to jump again for a couple of months and not to do any other things that might aggravate the condition. She was told that there isn't anything that can be done except to give it time. Has anyone else experienced a compression fracture and is this the common advice to fixing the problem.

Please don't hijack this thread and post packing tips or advice on chute selection. Thanks, Jim

Lumbar vertebral body compression fractures are well-recognised following an axial load with or without flexion. Not surprisingly, there is a wide spread of severity, ranging from a simple "buckle" of the anterior part of the body of the vertebra to complete disruption of all the bony elements, ie. including the posterior parts (pedicles and laminae). The latter is serious as spinal stability is compromised. From your description, I expect the injury was at the more mild end of the spectrum - your doctor should be able to confirm this.
Fractures will generally heal in 6 - 8 weeks but will continue to consolidate, or strengthen, for months. Your daughter should therefore allow time for sound healing to occur before she "tests" her back again. I suggest a minimum of 8 - 10 weeks. She should also consider physiotherapy to maintain good torso musculature / posture / flexibility. Analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents are sometimes helpful. A full recovery should occur - if the vertebral structure is not significantly altered.
(my day job is trauma & orthopaedic surgery)
Regards
AP

Disclaimer: I am no doctor, and any qualified medical advice SHOULD be taken to/from qualified medical professionals.

However, that said, you ask:

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Has anyone else experienced a compression fracture...

Yes. In fact all 5 of my lower lumbar (L1-L5).

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...and is this the common advice to fixing the problem.

I don't know/wouldn't necessarily say it is "common advice". I suppose it depends upon both the severity, and the alignment/location of the compression(s). A less than 5% compression with no mis-alignment will PROBABLY cause no concern, and in many cases can even go entirely unnoticed by many who would not even realize they suffered the injury. That said, a back injury is NEVER anything to be fooled with, and jumping can ALWAYS WAIT!

What sort of follow-up do you have set for your daughter for this? Also, if you have any concerns further at all, see another doctor, if not even a qualified specialist (such as an orthopedist or orthopedic surgeon) for a second opinion.

In my case I was very fortunate to not require surgery (my max compression on L1 was 15%), but I was out of the sport for a good 9 weeks, and probably "pushed it" even at that. Be sure your daughter heals/has healed FULLY before she returns. And get it verified (follow-up visit/X-rayed). Being anxious to get back in the short-term would not be worth the potentially long term complications of not being SURE/absolutely safe about that.

Hope my anecdotal input is of at least some help/insight. Feel free to PM me if you'd value any further personal experience/details.

Blue Skies,
-Grant

Hey Andy and Scrumpot, Thanks for the feedback. Your responses were definitely helpful. Jeni's follow up visit will be on July 08 and another set of X-rays will be taken then. We will take it slow.
She is currently a student at the University and I don't know what type of therapy she might be eligible for although she was told that she could swim. If there are some other simple exercises that might help with her rehab please PM me and we'll give them a whirl.

Blue Skies......Jim

I had a landing accident several years ago which resulted in a 30% compression of T-12.I got by without surgery,wearing a brace and follow up visits once a month for 3 months.I returned to jumping at 3 months but was very aware of the injury for a long time,about a year.I don't recommend it to anyone.

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Hey Andy and Scrumpot, Thanks for the feedback. Your responses were definitely helpful. Jeni's follow up visit will be on July 08 and another set of X-rays will be taken then. We will take it slow.
She is currently a student at the University and I don't know what type of therapy she might be eligible for although she was told that she could swim. If there are some other simple exercises that might help with her rehab please PM me and we'll give them a whirl.

Blue Skies......Jim

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Swimming is great exercise when recovering from spinal injuries.
The first winter after I herniated a disc in my back, I lay around and moaned a lot.
The second winter I swam three times a week in the university pool. Swimming made a huge difference by lowering my weight and raising my morale.
As for physio therapy, hopefully her university has a physio therapy department and allows their physio' students to practice on "walking wounded," like the University of Ottawa physio' department helped me.
The only thing that got me back on my feet was a million sit-ups and hundreds of hours of stretching to pull my spine back into alignment.

Chris and Rob thanks for posting. All the info helps.

Cheers, Jim

I had a 20% wedge compression of my T8 from a hard opening. I had one the top canadian orthopedic surgeons go over my x rays. He told me there is nothing to do but rest until it heals.

One difference is that he told me spinal injuries do not heal at the same rate as normal bones. He said to avoid putting any strain on my back for 18-20 weeks. he then asked if I smoked, I said yes and he said 20-24 weeks as smoking affects bone density and healing. He also said it would be up to a year before I felt completely better again, (it took a year and a half)

I waited about 18 weeks before jumping again and I am now fine.

Hope this helps.

Dayle

Dayle thanks for the feedback. I'm sure the orthopedic surgeon had a wealth of experience to draw on due to the popularity of hockey in Canada. LOL
I have two friends from Canada living across the street from me, heh, and they both broke bones playing hockey. Sooooo based on this scientific pool of three canadians, the two across the street and you, I would have to surmise that 2/3 of all canadian men break bones by playing hockey. Using that same logic it must be fun to be in a country where 1/3 of all men skydive too.

I'm happy to see this thread, even if from 2005. I'm 39, 110 lbs, and I have been jumping for 6 years with over 400 jumps. I pack the same way every time, but I had an extremely hard opening on my Safire2 139 last Saturday. It literally felt like my back snapped in half, and my chest ripped apart all at the same time. I finally went to the ER due to extreme pain in my back (and neck and shoulder-right side only), and swelling in my chest and neck. The CT scan showed a compression fracture on T6. They also told me that I tore my right pectoral muscle and strained muscles in my neck and right shoulder. They fitted me into a full back brace and sent me home with muscle relaxers and pain meds. I'm clueless as to how this happened and find myself questioning everything. How can a hard opening do so much damage? I've been trying to get in with a spine specialist, but in the meantime I have no direction as to what I'm supposed to be doing or not doing, how long I have to wear this brace, and when I'll be able to jump again. Not to mention it really messes with your head. Is this a common thing? I've been injured on landing plenty times, even tore my ACL and had to have surgery that left me out of the sport for almost a year. But this is not something I ever anticipated would happen. 

About ten years ago, I had a very hard opening on a Sabre2 190, and compressed T8.  Best guess at the time was that my packer didn't stow the slider properly (the 190 was a "full" fit for my rig, and the packer was somewhat new).  I also got a brace, and monthly checkups, complete with x-rays.  After about six months, the doctor said that I looked stable.  I asked several times whether I could return to jumping, and he refused to say yes (I think for liability reasons).  But he discharged me, and I re-learned how to pack, and then went back to jumping.  But I now jump a canopy with dacron lines, and no one packs for me anymore, even when I was team training and on a 20-minute call after I landed.

A hard opening can do so much damage because we're going from 120 mph to 14 mph in less than a second.  Think about how much acceleration is needed for that to happen, and how much force that puts on your body (I may have some of the words here wrong, I haven't taken a physics class for over 30 years).

Is it common?  I would say it's not UNcommon to have a hard opening.  But having a hard opening to the point of compressing a vertebra I don't think is as common.  But it can happen (you and I are living proof) and it's just another one of the risks we need to factor in against our love of flying.

Several people have died from torn aortas due to hard openings. It is not very common, but it is a known risk.

lot's of people have had hard openings from sabre 1s. when someone says hard opening the very first thing I think of is a sabre 1. throw that thing in the trash.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Westerly

16 hours ago, Westerly said:

a sabre 1. throw that thing in the trash.

Or put a domed or pocket slider on it. 

(I think we've had this disagreement before! :-)  )

People have died, I know someone that had a stroke after a hard opening and had lost partial vision on one eye for a period of time.

 

A hard opening is no joke, you are coming to an abrupt stop, from 120+ mph, on the equivalent of steel cables.

On 5/31/2020 at 11:58 AM, jj0415 said:

I'm happy to see this thread, even if from 2005. I'm 39, 110 lbs, and I have been jumping for 6 years with over 400 jumps. I pack the same way every time, but I had an extremely hard opening on my Safire2 139 last Saturday. It literally felt like my back snapped in half, and my chest ripped apart all at the same time. I finally went to the ER due to extreme pain in my back (and neck and shoulder-right side only), and swelling in my chest and neck. The CT scan showed a compression fracture on T6. They also told me that I tore my right pectoral muscle and strained muscles in my neck and right shoulder. They fitted me into a full back brace and sent me home with muscle relaxers and pain meds. I'm clueless as to how this happened and find myself questioning everything. How can a hard opening do so much damage? I've been trying to get in with a spine specialist, but in the meantime I have no direction as to what I'm supposed to be doing or not doing, how long I have to wear this brace, and when I'll be able to jump again. Not to mention it really messes with your head. Is this a common thing? I've been injured on landing plenty times, even tore my ACL and had to have surgery that left me out of the sport for almost a year. But this is not something I ever anticipated would happen. 

If your locking stows are loose and the canopy comes out of the bag early, the slider won't be able to do it's job properly. Use fresh rubber bands and double stow the locking stows.

Also, the safire2 doesn't allow dacron lines. Use dacron lines, and maybe even a slightly domed slider if you wanted to be extra certain. Like the same length and width as the regular slider for the canopy size, but in my personal experience just 2 inches of dome doesn't really increase the opening time much but does increase the reliability of openings.  Make sure when quartering the slider that the fabric is as deep in the canopy as possible. I got my dome slider at paraconcepts.com

 

A spectre or pilot with dacron lines, with tight locking stows, are about some of the most reliable openings you can get. The hybrid pilot would soften the openings even farther.

Edited July 4, 2020 by sheeks

19 hours ago, sheeks said:

 

 

A spectre or pilot with dacron lines, with tight locking stows, are about some of the most reliable openings you can get.

Well I dont know what your definition is of reliable. I think you're using the word reliable to mean soft. To me reliable = always on heading and never with a malfunction. In that case, the best you're going to get is a BASE canopy followed by jumping a lightly loaded reserve as a main followed by jumping a 0-3 CFM 7-cell wingsuiting canopy. No 9-cell can come even close in reliability to any of those options.

12 hours ago, 20kN said:

Well I dont know what your definition is of reliable. I think you're using the word reliable to mean soft. To me reliable = always on heading and never with a malfunction. In that case, the best you're going to get is a BASE canopy followed by jumping a lightly loaded reserve as a main followed by jumping a 0-3 CFM 7-cell wingsuiting canopy. No 9-cell can come even close in reliability to any of those options.

Yeah, find a new old stock Cruiselite! Or just contact FCI for one of these that they still produce apparently.

https://flightconcepts.com/7-cell-classic/

On 7/4/2020 at 8:26 PM, 20kN said:

Well I dont know what your definition is of reliable. I think you're using the word reliable to mean soft. To me reliable = always on heading and never with a malfunction. In that case, the best you're going to get is a BASE canopy followed by jumping a lightly loaded reserve as a main followed by jumping a 0-3 CFM 7-cell wingsuiting canopy. No 9-cell can come even close in reliability to any of those options.

I just meant consistantly/reliably soft.

Edited July 6, 2020 by sheeks

I'm 32 female 104 Ib

Slipped on the stairs 11 weeks ago

I was misdiagnosed as back strain at first

Then, after 4 weeks, i felt recovery was slow, so I had an MRI, which showed wedged vertebras T3-T4-T5 and slight fissure in T3 vertebral body

 

Honestly, for the first 4 weeks after injury, i didn't fully restrict movements and exercise as i thought it was just a strain, and the pain wasn't debilitating during daily activities and exercise, but the pain at shoulder blades never faded with certain movements like twisting upper back and neck left-right tilting

 

After being diagnosed with wedged vertebras and mild fissure, doctors told me to keep resting, not practising any exercise, even swimming, and physiotherapy was restricted 

a bunch of painkillers and muscle relaxants and rest 

But also pain never faded 

 

After visiting several doctors, they all recommended rest and medications for relieving symptoms but no estimated time for recovery, which always puts me in depressive episodes and hopeless thoughts that i might not be back to normal

 

It has been 11 weeks now after the injury and i'm still on symptoms relieving medications still suffering from pain living with a bunch of restrictions

 

I'd appreciate it if someone could relieve my concerns about being back to normal and if what I'm suffering from is ever going away

 

P.S. 

I'm a paratrooper who hopes to be a skydiver oneday

On 5/22/2024 at 9:54 AM, emgamal said:

After being diagnosed with wedged vertebras and mild fissure, doctors told me to keep resting, not practising any exercise, even swimming, and physiotherapy was restricted 

a bunch of painkillers and muscle relaxants and rest 

But also pain never faded 

NOT A DOCTOR: 

But, was Airborne in the Army also and I too; fractured my back. You should be getting to the end of your pain cycle in about a week or two. If not, then please go back to the Doctor in a couple of weeks. You may not believe it but whole milk will help a considerable amount (Lots of it). If you have access to a Jacuzzi - about twenty minutes a day with the jets directed at the T3-5 area. 

Good Luck.

Airborne to Skydiver. That's how I started. My instructor told me he was gonna have to unlearn me a whole lot of bad habits (and, he had been an Airborne Instructor). :)  

26 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

Airborne to Skydiver

i went the other way.  first in the door on my first jump when everyone was talking about how high we were, all i kept thinking about was how low we were.  i almost arched out the door out of habit.

On 5/24/2024 at 11:58 PM, wmw999 said:

I have no inputs on healing from this; I do know people who have recovered from compression fractures and gone back to jumping.

What does your doctor say about the length of time its taking to heal? It seems really long.

And, I hate to mention it, but could there be a bone density issue? You're young, but it isn't unheard of.

I'm sorry youre going through this.

Wendy P.

Thanks for your response it gave me hope

Unfortunately most orthopaedics here are not familiar to airborn sports and they blindly recommend to not to practice it that's why i'm trying to find out similar cases that might give me a hope

Most of the doctors i visited assumed that this type of injury could recover within 3 months but since i was misdiagnosed for the first 4 weeks that delayed the recovery but none of them given an actual length of healing 

And actually i've just knew that i have a bone density issue maybe thats what made me susceptible to get those compression fractures from the fall and the last doctor i visited added more 6 weeks of rest and calcium supplements hopefully i might get better 

 

On 5/25/2024 at 1:06 PM, BIGUN said:

NOT A DOCTOR: 

But, was Airborne in the Army also and I too; fractured my back. You should be getting to the end of your pain cycle in about a week or two. If not, then please go back to the Doctor in a couple of weeks. You may not believe it but whole milk will help a considerable amount (Lots of it). If you have access to a Jacuzzi - about twenty minutes a day with the jets directed at the T3-5 area. 

Good Luck.

Airborne to Skydiver. That's how I started. My instructor told me he was gonna have to unlearn me a whole lot of bad habits (and, he had been an Airborne Instructor). :)  

Thanks for your response 

Glad to hear that you came back from that injury 

I  began to get convinced that it needs a true stubborn to pass through this distress 

Two of the orthopaedics whom i visited explained that the pain is due to muscle spasms that occured because of the change in vertebral shape and that it should disappear once the fracture is healed and the last doctor i visited added 6 weeks of rest and calcium supplements i'll take your advice and add milk too

Thank you for your advices i really appreciate it