Arena player dies after spinal injury

[Goldmember]

Arena player dies after spinal injury

 

Former NFL defensive lineman Al Lucas died Sunday from a presumed spinal cord injury sustained while trying to make a tackle for the host Los Angeles Avengers during an Arena Football League game, the team said.

 

Lucas was taken to California Hospital and all attempts to revive him were unsuccessful, team physician Dr. Luga Podesta said in a statement.

 

A call to a California Hospital spokesman was not returned.

 

"It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of Al Lucas. At this time, the thoughts and prayers of the entire Avenger organization are with his wife and family," team owner and chief executive officer Casey Wasserman said in a statement.

 

"There's nothing you can say about what happened," Avengers lineman Sean McNamara told the Los Angeles Daily News. "(Death) never entered our minds as a possibility. You think about his family and his daughter and hope they'll be all right."

 

The 26-year-old Lucas was injured during a first-quarter kickoff return against the New York Dragons.

 

Television replays showed Lucas bending down to make a tackle. The Dragons' ballcarrier and a blocker tumbled over his head and back, with the blocker's leg appearing to hit Lucas in the head.

 

Lucas did not move after falling to the ground.

 

The 6-foot-1, 300-pound lineman played two seasons (2000-01) for the Carolina Panthers, recording 49 1/2 tackles in 20 games.

[knightni]

You put a violent sport like tackle football in a small area, stuff can happen. I'm surprised that this is the first time that something severe has occured.

 

I'm not condoning the guy's death, but Arena football is a sport, where, by playing it, you are just asking for a career ending injury. Unfortunately, the worst happened.

 

I wish only the best for Mr Lucas' family and hope that Arena football can take this situation and turn it into a positive safety issue. Kind of like Earnhardt's death and the insitution of the HANS device in NASCAR.

[LosMediasBlancas]

I'm confused, did the knee to the head kill him or the spinal injury? How exactly does a spinal injury result in death?

[WilliamTell]

It's a sad story. It didn't even look that bad, but many times, the innocent looking plays are the worst.

[southsider2k5]

I'm confused, did the knee to the head kill him or the spinal injury? How exactly does a spinal injury result in death?

 

I am guessing the knee to the head caused the spinal injury.

[LosMediasBlancas]

I am guessing the knee to the head caused the spinal injury.

 

ok and so......how do you die from a spine injury??

[Soxy]

ok and so......how do you die from a spine injury??

Thing Christopher Reeve. You break a cervical disk--you won't be able to breathe because communication between the body and the brain has been cut off.

[Queen Prawn]

Thing Christopher Reeve. You break a cervical disk--you won't be able to breathe because communication between the body and the brain has been cut off.

 

That's what I was thinking. I was also thinking that has to be a horrible way to die. for him and his family

[LosMediasBlancas]

The hit didn't even look that bad, just one of those freak things I guess.

My buddy's GF works at a spine rehab center at a hospital. She was telling us the other day that she has 2 patients who were in the ocean on vacation somewhere. Apparently a wave came and hit them at such a weird angle ( I guess) that it shifted and damaged their spine. These are 2 seperate incidents too, both in shallow water!!!! That just seems impossible.

[witesoxfan]

The spinal cord is probably the most vital thing in your body that is most easily damaged(because obviously, the brain is the most vital organ in your body, and the heart and lungs are pretty important too...but they are not nearly as fragile nor are they injured as easily). It being the highway for everything in your body to the brain makes it pretty important.

 

If it severs in the lumbar section, you can lose the use of your legs; in the thoracic region, the arms and such; the cervical region, the vital organs and such - I think I remembered that right.

 

It being made of neurons, and the fact that neurons don't reproduce, doesn't help.

 

Being in an anatomy class, you do pick up a few things like this...so I think I have that right.

[Soxy]

If it severs in the lumbar section, you can lose the use of your legs; in the thoracic region, the arms and such; the cervical region, the vital organs and such - I think I remembered that right.

 

It being made of neurons, and the fact that neurons don't reproduce, doesn't help.

You are very right.

 

And, fwiw, the cells that don't regenerate are called oligodendrocytes. Once the myelin sheath (this is what allows action potentials to move down the cell's axon) is broken or damaged in the oligodendrocytes it never grows back. Which is why injuries to the central nervous system are so devasting and irreversible. (Interestingly, the oligo's counterparts in the peripheral nervous system, schwann cells are able to regenerate.)

 

And my parents made fun of me for having a neuroscience concentration. Hahahah...