Jeth 0 #1 August 24, 2006 I know many jumpers have had broken femurs from bad landings. I am just curious, though -- when you break your femur, do you usually also break your tibia or fibula? I would think if you hit the ground hard, you'd break those before the femur, but everyone always talks about someone pounding in and breaking a femur. Is it possible to only break that and not the lower bones? Can someone explain this to me? Thanks."At 13,000 feet nothing else matters." PFRX!!!!! Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109 My Jump Site Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
selbbub78 0 #2 August 24, 2006 I broke only my femur. Although, I'm not positive how I managed to do that. When I landed my ankle was facing upward in a 180 degree direction that it's not even supposed to move in, but they just were able to pop it back in socket. No problems... CReW SKies,"Women fake orgasms - men fake whole relationships" – Sharon Stone "The world is my dropzone" (wise crewdog quote) "The light dims, until full darkness pierces into the world."-KDM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peej 0 #3 August 25, 2006 Not as far as i know. I guess it depends largely how you land relative to the ground. If you impact in a diving turn and hit the side of your ody first it's pelvis and femur and not necessarily your feet that are hitting the ground first. Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tonto 1 #4 August 25, 2006 Peej has explained it pretty well. It's kinda hard to load the fib and tib when you've past the 45 degree point. I broke only my femur. tIt's the year of the Pig. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tombuch 0 #5 August 25, 2006 I'm and EMT and former S&TA, and I've handled a bunch of broken femurs. There are two distinct landing mechanisms that seem to generate this type of injury. Both landings involve high speed flight, generally under a high performance parachute. The most common cause that I have responded to is a steep turn where the parachute is to to side of the jumper at landing. The first point of contact is the knee that is inside the turn, so the energy slams the femur first. From there anything can happen and neck/back injury is anticipated. We also often see arm/shoulder injury to the side that was inside the turn. The second cause is a straight in landing where both feet are pulled behind the jumper. These landings look like normal swoops except that the toggles aren't pulled soon enough, or the parachute doesn't respond to the toggle input. In this case the initial energy can slam both femurs. Here too, additional neck and back injuries can happen. Femur injuries can also happen without tib/fib injury in more traditional landings when there isn't much tension in the lower legs so they fold back, and the knee becomes the first point of impact absorption. .Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyhpp 0 #6 August 25, 2006 I broke only my femur - there was no injury to either my knees, ankles or back. For good measure I slammed my head into the ground as well and was badly concussed. The usual jokes followed about how I should have taken the full impact on my head and therefore wouldn't have been injured at all...... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
