Spine doctors worry about rugby toll

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 6

Spine doctors worry about rugby toll

Aspects of rugby, particularly the scrum, are worrying doctors. One rugby casualty, Philip Spring, a Marton meat inspector, aged 19, is in the Christchurch spinal unit after being injured in a rugby game at Wanganui last Saturday. The senior surgeon at Burwood Hospital, Mr A. R. Bean, said yesterday that Mr Spring might well be in the spinal unit for six months. He was very concerned that Mr Spring was the third young rugby player admitted to the unit since April. Mr Spring’s general condition was satisfactory, but he had not made any progress since being admitted to the unit on Sunday. Mr Spring has a dislocated neck, and is paralysed from the arms down.

Richard Hill, aged 18, of Oamaru, was admitted to the unit last week; Richard Welch, aged 22, of Wairarapa, was admitted in April.

Mr Bean said three admissions from rugby injuries so early in the season were concerning him. It was not possible to prevent all injuries in a contact sport, but certain aspects of rugby had to be looked into.

The New Zealand Rugby Union was investigating injuries; it was to be hoped that the three admissions would hasten the investigation.

“Although I am probably not informed enough to say so, it seems to me that the scrum is the most dangerous part of the game. A fair proportion of injuries we treat have come from the scrum,” said Mr Bean. Two Hamilton doctors are

concerned that the nature of the game may have changed in some way to account for the disturbing increase in spinal injuries received in rugby games.

Waikato Hospital records show that seven men suffered cervical spine injuries playing rugby during 1978, whereas there had been only two cases in the previous three years. That hospital has already admitted three severelyinjured players this year, one of whom has died. Doctors C. H. Hooker and J. Leighton said most of those injuries, had been suffered in the scrum, particularly a collapsing scrum.