‘What puts you at risk of spinal cord injuries’

While road traffic accident is a major cause of spinal cord injuries, these days many Nigerians are predisposing themselves to the condition through various activities and practices. For instance, Malam Danburam, 50, is a cattle herder. Two of his cows were fighting and he ran there to separate them. One of the cows caught him […]

While road traffic accident is a major cause of spinal cord injuries, these days many Nigerians are predisposing themselves to the condition through various activities and practices.

For instance, Malam Danburam, 50, is a cattle herder. Two of his cows were fighting and he ran there to separate them. One of the cows caught him with his horn and threw him down. He suffered complete spinal cord injury as a result.

John , a young man is an acrobatic and part of his trade  is somersaulting to entertain people along the streets. However, he wasn’t lucky on that particular day. He landed on his head and broke his neck and sustained a complete spinal cord injury. He became completely paralyzed; he could no longer move his hands, feet and other parts of his body.

Umaru on the other hand works with an abattoir; and carries large chunks of meat from one part of the abattoir to the other. He carried a very large thigh of a cow and slipped because of the wet ground. He suffered a partial spinal cord injury.

Chris and Yakubu are friends, they were fighting and Yakubu who was stronger decided to practice what he has been watching in films on his friend, he lifted him up and threw him on the ground. Chris suffered complete spinal cord injury.

A spinal cord injury refers to damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves at the end of the spinal canal. The damage causes changes in its function, and could either be temporary or permanent. These changes lead to loss of muscle function, sensation and function in parts of the body served by the spinal cord.

People can suffer from complete or incomplete spinal cord injury depending on the level of injury or impact on the spinal cord.

Dr Mamman Mohammed Lawal, a consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, and a specialist in spine surgery said hospitals have continued to frequently receive cases of people who suffer from spinal cord injury because they fell down from trees and other activities.

He said spinal cord injury occurs when the spinal cord yields due to force such as some kind of force exchange between the outside and the cord that overwhelms it, adding that it is a very common problem and could be accidental, and non-accidental (that is congenital, from birth) and other metabolic causes.

The orthopaedic surgeon said close to 50 percent of spinal cord injuries were as a result of road traffic crashes either through vehicles, bikes, tricycles popularly called Keke Napep and even animal rides.

He said about 25 percent of spinal cord injuries were as a result of fall from heights. He said this seems the most common cause of spinal cord injuries in our setting these days.

“We have seen a lot of spinal cord injuries from the rural areas, too and more than 90% of them are a result of falls from height. Of course in other areas like urban centres you see more of road crashes as the cause of spinal cord injuries because there are lots of cars.

“In the western part of the world, one would say that diving into shallow pool or, some occupational hazards, or falling from heights are major causes of spinal cord injuries but in our environment what we commonly see is fall from mango trees, kuka (baobab) trees and all those things. It has gotten to the extent that we tried to run a new statistics because it used to be that the commonest cause of spinal cord injuries is road traffic accident.”

Dr Lawal said other things that could cause spinal cord injuries are sports such as football, rugby, separating animals fighting, activities where a person is lifted and left to hit on the ground, and from violence like  terrorism, banditry and other ways of sustaining injuries.

Preventing road traffic accidents is important in preventing spinal cord injury and involves ensuring good drivers, vehicles and roads, he said.

On falls from heights, he said, “ there is need for a lot of education because you cannot go up the mango tree to pluck mango that will not sell for N1000 and then sustain an injury that will paralyze you for life.

“Even if you have the money to take care of yourself, some of this paralysis cannot be cured so avoid all the things that can cause you to fall from heights. It is dangerous to climb a tree if you don’t have protective gadgets. Also, don’t dive into a pool without knowing the depth of the pool. Don’t engage in unnecessary sports.”

He said using seatbelt, and not overcrowding vehicles would also go a long way to help prevent spinal cord injuries.

Asked if there was a cure for spinal cord injury, he explained that incomplete injury can be cured but that complete injuries that resulted in paralysis could not be cured.

He said: “When the spinal cord is injured, it  is either the spinal cord has been hit and has bled into itself or it has been hit and has cut completely. If you hit the cord and it bled into itself, the injury could be complete or incomplete. If the cord is completely cut it has no cure.

“Incomplete injuries have very good outcome when they are attended to early enough. When the patients present to the hospital early, they are quickly operated on if they need surgery, and their outcome is good if they are incompletely injured.

“In fact if you have complete paralysis there is not yet any cure of paralysis, there have been all sorts of theories of cures but they are all at experimental stages.”

He said paralyzed patients are only rehabilitated through physiotherapy and other social activities to give them some sense of belonging and to live a better life rather than going into depression and dying.

“Recovering from complete paralysis is less than one percent so when patients come, we always tell them you have a very bad injury and that less than one percent of people recover from this. Spinal cord injury patients always want to commit suicide so sometimes we involve psychiatrists to counsel them,” he said.