# Teens Sever Fingers in School Tug of War Game



## Philbert (Feb 7, 2013)

So, this is not really arboricultural related, except that they were probably using nylon rope, instead of manila, and the stretch-back/recoil thing could also take the fingers off of a groundie, etc.

Not something that would be obvious to everybody. (Also not obvious that there is an international tug-of-war officiating organization with a 60 page rule book!).


Philbert

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Feb 5, 2013 1:50pm

_Two Los Angeles-area high school students each had four fingers severed while participating in a group tug of war at a school event.
The two teens, a male and female who are both 18, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, were rushed to the local trauma center after the ghastly accident took place on Monday at South El Monte High School. Miguel Garcia with the LAFD told ABCNews.com that his station received a call regarding the incident at 12:20 p.m. Monday.

“When we arrived we went to administration office, the staff was rendering aid to both kids,” he said. That’s where I saw they had some pretty severe injuries to their hands. The two of them lost four [fingers] each.”

El Monte Union High School District Assistant Superintendent Nick Salerno told ABCNews.com that the students were participating in the school’s Spirit Week events, which consist of a number of student engagement activities.

Garcia said the two teens were participating with 20-30 other students in the tug of war, and that they were on the same team. He said that once he arrived they began to stabilize the teens and dress their wounds.

KTLA reported that the rope snapped during the event, which pitted juniors at the school against seniors. The station identified the students as Edith Rodriguez and Pablo Ocegueda.

“They were doing fairly well for the injury they sustained, they were holding out, but they were somewhat in a state of shock,” Garcia said.
Staff members put the severed digits on ice, and they were transported along with the students to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
Calls placed to USC Medical Center by ABCNews.com were not immediately returned. Salerno said that the students are stable, but it is still unclear if the fingers have been reattached.

“They went into surgery yesterday afternoon, surgeries were lengthy for both. Both students are stable,” he said.

Dr. Subhro Sen, a clinical assistant professor at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, told ABCNews.com that severed fingers typically need to be reattached as soon as possible, with a window of about 8-12 hours. This all depends on how well the parts are protected, and if they’re cooled. He said that he has previously reattached body parts that have been off to close to a day.

“In a child or adult that had more than one avulsed off, we will still try to replant those fingers. It can certainly become a significant functional deficit,” he said. “When we see the patient, we assess–not all will be replantable, but we will try to replant ones where the tissue is in reasonable condition.”
Sen said that the road to recovery can be difficult.

“It’s a long and arduous process,” he said, speaking in general about these types of cases. “There are many months of physical therapy and possibly additional surgeries, to release scar tissue.”_


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## derwoodii (Feb 8, 2013)

sad awful hope they can refit 

It says rope broke ......I'm struggling to see that a 20 head tugg of war can lead to a ropes breaking force whipping off fingers,,, a maybe but more to reckon they wrapped the rope around hands n finger and when force applied it choked and chopped which is how it more often happens with predicable sad regular occurrence. 


Tug of war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tennessee, June 9, 1995, a man had his hand torn off (avulsion) by sudden pull (his hand was in a loop). Taipei, Taiwan, October 25, 1997, rope parted, two men suffer arm amputations (details below). Australia, September, 2002, 11-year old boy has several fingers cut to the bone and nearly severed. Denver, Colorado, October 12, 2007, two teenage boys, rope looped around hands, suffer hand amputations. Digby, Nova Scotia, October 25, 2010, rope looped around hand, man loses four fingers. El Monte, California, February 4, 2013, rope parted, teenage boy and girl each suffer multi-finger amputations.[6]

thou this says I could be wrong

1997 Arm severing incident

On October 25, 1997, Yang Chiung-ming and Chen Ming-kuo each had their left arms severed below the shoulder during a massive Tug-of-War event in Taipei, Taiwan. The event, held at a park along the Keelung River in Taipei in celebration of Retrocession Day (the 52nd anniversary of the end of the Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan), involved over 1,600 participants whose combined strength exerted over 80,000 kg (176,000 lb) of force on a 5 cm (2 inch) nylon rope that could only withstand a maximum of 26,000 kg (57,000 lb). The rope immediately snapped and the sheer rebounding force of the broken rope tore off the men's arms. Both men were immediately taken to a nearby hospital where their arms were successfully reattached following several hours of microsurgery.[7][8][9][10][11]

newbie groundies don't ever wrap a rope over hand waist or arm,, if you canna hold the load by hand grip well your climbers not judging the weight & its going to take you for a ride, use anything other than flesh to add some friction. 



Yale Cordage Ultrex vs. XTC Rope Static and Dynamic Test Demonstration - YouTube


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## gtsawyer (Feb 15, 2013)

I know for a fact that a person doesn't have to have a rope wrapped around a finger to have it cut off by a snapping rope. I lost the end of a finger, after a snapping rope first went through my insulated leather glove, and then through a cotton glove (not much protection, I admit) before taking off the end of my middle finger. This was a 1" nylon rope that broke because of too much tension. My hands were close to the axis of the stretched rope, but not on the rope itself. This was my favorite middle finger too 

Mythbusters' episode notwithstanding, a snapping rope is not to be argued with. I've seen a few news reports of fingers being lost during tug-o-war events, and suspect very few of the victims had their fingers wrapped around the rope (you can't wrap a tensioned rope around your fingers very easily). Something like a tug-o-war pull is not exactly like how most people use ropes; tension is highest at the middle, and then decreases towards the ends. Assuming a break in the middle, I could easily believe the broken ends would accelerate more than if say a tow rope parted.


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