Nurses deplore sports injuries

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 19

Nurses deplore sports injuries

PA Nelson. The increasing incidence of serious rugby injuries suffered by young people was deplored at the annual conference of the Nurses’ Association at Nelson. The association’s Middlemore branch said that a lack of supervision of school rugby matches had led to some of the “dreadful” accidents in recent years. The branch cited rugby accidents last year in which two boys became tetraplegics. They both lost the use of their legs and lost much of the movement of their arms.

"Rucking is dangerous and so are scrums. At that, age, young muscles and bones cannot take the stress,” the Middlemore

delegate said. “They seldom play with cool heads.”

The delegate quoted figures gathered in a survey by the Accident Compensation Commission last year, showing six times more injuries among rugby players than in any other sport. “Stricter supervision could have prevented these severe injuries,” she said. “We feel that an improvement in the quality of school football coaches, and an increase in supervision, would prevent at least some of these dreadful accidents.” A remit was carried notifying the Minister of Education and Minister of Sport and Recreation of the concern about injuries in all sport.