Scouting Injuries Or Accidents

[structuralrik]

Well over my years in scouting Ive seen countless bruises, cuts, dings, minor burns and scrapes. Ive been around some near misses where only luck avoided injury. Including a boy falling off a cliff into thorn bushes, that we now laugh about.

 

But the worst event involving scouts I ever encountered happened on a weekend trip for our annual Father-Son Chili Cook. I was about 14 and we usually all stayed in a large cabin, but that year a small group wanted to stay in their new tents. So, they set up a bit away from the cabin. In the middle of the day during free time a few of them were hanging out under their dining fly when a large tree split overhead at a fork. I was about 50 yards away and the image of the falling timber is seared into my memory. The tents were demolished and we sent two scouts to the hospital. One with a possible lower back injury (he was fine); the other suffered a skull fracture (it started on the right side arced around the rear of his skull then fanned over the crown of his head). He was catatonic (eyes open, no response) when we uncovered him in the debris and required re-hab (he fully recovered).

 

As far as response; Im sure there was good and not so good, it was a long time ago. The scoutmaster and ASMs took the lead on the injuries. But the outcome; no injuries were exacerbated and no responders were injured. So it could have gone worse.

 

[SMT224]

Had a Scout at summer camp that came to me on Wednesday night feeling very sick. We took him to the medic and his symptoms matched cerebral meningitis. Apparently he had been feeling badly since Monday, but was so into being at camp that he didn't want to say anything.

 

The medic freaked out, fearing a full camp evacuation. My self and another adult got him to a near-by ER (30 minute drive) and got in touch with his parents. After an hour they determined it was a bacterial infection and not meningitis. I call the medic and he was very relived.

 

The parents showed up, and the kid was very disappointed when told he would not be able to go back to camp!!

 

At the same time I was dealing with several perfectly healthy but homesick kids who were begging to go home!!

[packsaddle]

Around 1962...playing Capture the Flag in the Great Smokies...I was crouched hiding and another boy saw me from a distance so he thoughtlessly chunked a really big rock at me. Never saw it coming. It hit my knee squarely and broke the kneecap. It was painful. I screamed. I was bleeding like a stuck pig and sounded like one as well. One of the other boys fainted. Another was in tears. They carried me to a flat place and held me down to treat the cut. A leader took me to a clinic for an X-ray. I was on crutches for a couple of months. The boy who threw the rock was deeply sorry and I forgave him...heck I might just as well have been the thrower if the tables were turned.

 

More recently, we're on the Yorktown, it's after dark. The boys are being boys and a few of them decide to chase someone. The one being chased (in the dark) runs slap into a steel pole and knocks out a tooth. The boys bring him to the latrine with blood gushing out of his mouth, I tell them to FIND THAT TOOTH! Wow, they actually found it. We take boy and tooth to the emergency room. Everyone else goes to sleep. At the hospital they put the tooth back and patch him up with pain killers. We return at about 5 am, no point in trying to sleep now.

The tooth doesn't 'take' (I knew it had almost no chance) so I create an award for the occasion including a photo of him with a big smile and 'RIP' superimposed on that tooth. Everyone laughs, even the parents, a little nervously. But aside from a big dental bill, all was well.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[eisely]

I guess that we have been pretty fortunate.

 

Probably the worst thing that happened on an outing in which I participated was a mass attack by bees. We were hiking out of Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains when a boy in the middle of the group disturbed a hive in the ground. They may have been the notorious "killer bees" which have been migrating Northward, but it doesn't matter.

 

They were very aggressive and we were stuck on a very narrow trail on the side of a steep hill. The most serious concern was the possiblity of someone in the group experiencing a major allergic reaction. That did not happen and after we got past the bees and gathered back together we finished our trek without further difficulty. Several scouts and some of the adults received multiple stings. I counted seven in my own scalp.

[gsdad]

My first camping trip as a Boy Scout one of the older kids in the troop put a 3/4 axe between his toes. No amputations, just stitches.

 

While working at summer camp a fellow staffer decided to run down Pine Road it was the darkest trail in camp and he ran like a deer. He went full speed into a tree. It sounded like a car wreck from where I was standing 75 yards away.

 

At the 75th Anniversary weekend on Treasure Island a scouter had a heart attack. I was on the other side of the river with the barge and was told to get back ASAP. I get to the dock and see most of the adult leadership in my troop carrying the man on a litter. It was the only time the ranger didn't give me grief for running the outboard at WOT.

 

The last was my own mishap. I was cleaning the QM shed and knocked a 12lb sledge off the rack and it fell to hit me over my right eye. A quick trip to the closest ER resulted in stitches. I was back at camp that afternoon.

[IM_Kathy]

worst we had was all at one outing. It was a campout then the next day the boys were sking, snowboarding, and tubing. Well we had a lot of boys that had never boarded before decide to take the lessons and give it a whirl. I believe in the end it was 3 broken arms and 1 sprained wrist.

 

and now we don't allow snowboarding unless they have a note from a parent stating that they are an experienced snowboarder! And amazingly have done the same trip a few more times without any injuries (knocking on wood as that is this months trip LOL)

 

I know before my son joined the troop we had 1 scout break his colarbone while at philmont... and then we had 1 scouter fall and break his nose while up at northern tier - luckily he was a doctor and reset it himself (all I can think is OUCH)

 

otherwise nothing serious - oh sure scraps and bruises, a few burns here and there, but all of these things the boys do take care of themselves or has their buddy do it.

[RichardB]

Along the lines of lessons learned you all are reporting incidents beyond scout rendered first aid right?

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/680-016_fillable.pdf

 

Found here http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/Forms.aspx if you were looking...

[Beavah]

Nah, Richard, I doubt anybody is outside of camp accidents or da very serious.

 

Da system is not well publicized, and inconvenient to use, without very good reportin' guidelines.

 

You and I both know if yeh want to do this right, yeh need to collect total activity day information from each unit at recharter, along with incident and accident reports (which also could be filed online at any time). That way yeh can generate rates.

 

And da best way to communicate the existence of such a system and encourage it's use is to regularly and aggressively share the data. Until yeh do that, yeh won't ever get voluntary compliance or high quality reporting. Look at the stuff da Mountaineers does with the Accidents in North American Mountaineering or what American Whitewater does with boater safety reports or what da SCUBA, NOLS/WRMC, or even Aviation communities do. Lots of great models out there for voluntary reporting systems, eh?

 

Beavah

[Eagle92]

hate to say it, but I do not remember ever seeing those forms that Richard has linked to. I have used the first aid log, but never dealt with any other paperwork.

 

Now I have seen some fo the forms that were listed at the second link.

[NealOnWheels]

Richard,

 

I doubt any of us use that form. I did not know it existed. Most of us keep up to date with the Guide to Safe Scouting. The Guide to Safe Scouting does not mention the form. It merely says that we need to contact our Scout Executive or his designee.

 

There seems to be a communications issue between the national office and us local volunteers. Changes in medical forms, tour permits, youth protection training requirements, amoung other things change in a rather short notice but the notification to the volunteers seems to trickle down gradually.

[clemlaw]

Well, it looks like my family holds the scouter.com record for the most serious Scouting-related injury. This incident must have taken place in about 1969 or 1970, and it involved my older brother. I must have been in about third or fourth grade. About all I remember is having a babysitter brought in on short notice while my parents disappeared for most of the next couple of days, and later reading Humpty Dumpty magazines purchased from the hospital gift shop, where we spent a lot of time over the coming days.

 

This was during a winter camp, and apparently all of the Scouts were jumping into a snow bank, butt first. Unbeknownst to them, the snowbank contained a branch. When it was my brother's turn to jump into the snowbank, he apparently landed in such a manner that the branch entered his, well, rectum, and punctured a piece of the intestine.

 

He was apparently not immediately in pain, but he was brought to the local hospital some time later that day. When my parents arrived, the local doctor had apparently diagnosed the condition as appendicitis, and was getting ready for the appendectomy.

 

My mom insisted that they put him in an ambulance and transport him to the big city hospital, approximately 50 miles away, where they correctly diagnosed the condition and did a colostomy, to allow the damaged section of intestine to heal, and after a couple of weeks, he went back to the hospital have things put back together normally.

 

I don't know whether it was related, but my brother dropped out of scouts, probably within about a year of that happening, shortly after which I joined. In retrospect, it's a miracle that my mom let me join, but both of my parents were very supportive of my being in Scouts in general, and of the leadership of the troop in particular.

 

And even when I sit down on a chair, I do tend to take a close look and make sure there's nothing there. I also tell my kids not to jump in snowbanks butt first.

[JMHawkins]

I guess I'm a member of the Hypothermia Patrol too. When I was a Tenderfoot during our annual Snowcamp, a warm front came in during the night and the rain assaulted my igloo. Well, actually, it was more of a badly made snow cave. It "caved" in on me and my buddy at any rate. The SPL and our PL came around at 2am and fished us out of the slush we were trying to sleep in and got us warmed up with blankets, a fire and hot chololate.

 

Neither of us were in seriously bad condition, but we probably would have been by morning. Good thing those kids were out at 2am checking on the new scouts.(This message has been edited by JMHawkins)

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

 

Now THIS is a fine example of Boy Scout leadership!

 

Were there other Scouts in a masure of distress benefitting from their leadership?

 

Were they motivated to do this on their own or were they reminded and encouyraged by adult leaders --- if you know?

 

I'll bet this did wonders to educate young Scouts on why they should listen to and respect those elected to leadership positions.

 

 

Not that it's especially important, but do you remember if the SPL and PL wound up getting Eagle?

 

[JMHawkins]

Seattle,

 

My memory is fuzzy (hmmm, maybe I had hypothermia worse than I thought...) but there were several of us "drying out" around that campfire, but me and my buddy may have been the only ones who were more than just wet and cold. Most of the troop at least tried to build igloos, and most of those had trouble in the rain. Thinking back on it, I bet several of the PLC were awake because their own igloos weren't holding up either. I don't know who suggested rounding everybody up and checking on condition - whether it was the SPL or the SM - and at the time I just assmed it was the SPL since that's the sort of troop we were. The SM may have "helped". The boy leaders were definiely in charge of the recovery efforts though, at least as far as Tenderfoot me could tell. They'd pitched a few extra tents the previous afternoon "just in case" and those came in handy. So did the extra hot chocolate packets.

 

I think both kids ended up as Life scouts. We were a hiking troop, not many Eagles. Advancement was perhaps an under-emphasized method. But yes, I didn't realize it at the time, but in the years since, it did occur to me that was a great example of boy-led success.

[BrentAllen]

While a Scout back in the mid-to-late 70's, we went on a boating and fishing trip to Lake Westpoint. We had a number of john boats with outboards. Some of the "older" Scouts were allowed to take a boat out with a younger Scout. Two of these boaters decided it was funner to criss-cross jumping each other's wakes than to go fishing. One of the older boys fell out of the back of the boat, and it started turning donuts. The younger Scout in the boat got scared and climbed to the back of the boat, and jumped out. He held on to the stern as he did, which turned him right into the prop. The prop skimmed his stomach and chest (looked like a rug burn) and hit him right in the chin. As you can imagine, it was a gusher. I don't know all the details, as I was on another part of the lake, but my dad somehow ended up with the Scout in our ski boat and got him back to camp, and on to the hospital. They stitched him up (can't remember how many) and the adults brought him back to camp before taking him home, so the rest of the Troop could see he was still alive. We were very fortunate this didn't end up much, much worse.