Alex McKinnon - Quadriplegic after dangerous tackle

[Leonormous Boozer]

Lol.

Plus O'Driscoll is Irish, so was obviously more of a victim.

lol.


He's talking about the time O'Driscoll tripped over Umaga's bootlaces isn't he?! Overreaction or what!

 

[TheSaffycen]

He's talking about the time O'Driscoll tripped over Umaga's bootlaces isn't he?! Overreaction or what!

I know don't you just hate it when supporters hold onto little things like GBH I never hear any supporters complain about French forward passes or Wayne Barnes

 

[SimonG]

Been awhile since I watched the assault, it's even worse than I remembered. The word "tackle" is a nonsense.


Rugby is still run as a backward amateur organisation, plus its not high profile and only a handful of teams play it so there isn't much scrutiny. Its an old boys brigade. Any assault whether it's on a sports field or on the street should be treated the same. Scottish footballer Duncan Ferguson head butted a player on the field and served a prison sentence. When you have two people target a person and combine to lift him off the ground, turn him, and drive him head first to the ground, its a criminal offence. This should have been taken out of the hands of rugby authorities, it's got nothing to do with rugby. Scott McRae unloaded a flurry of punches on O'Gara...again criminal behaviour. What happened to McKinnon (and Clerc with Warburton) were Rugby incidents. They were rightly punished (though you could argue on the severity) by Rugby authorities.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Oh good, no one's brought the O'Driscoll thing up for a while. Lets drag this thread through the dirt.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah, Jesus Christ.
Do we really have to drag all that b'llocks up again?

 

[big ginger 8]

Everyone put your laptop/phone/ipod down and back away slowly. Anyone with a desktop just do the latter.

Anyway really feel for the guy, one of my worst nightmares.

 

[profitius]

Good luck to McKinnon. Hopefully technology like stem cells will give him a bright future.


I'd agree that all tip tackles need to be punished harder. Commentators and fans complain about the game going soft but looking at what happened to McKinnon it should serve as a reminder of the potential dangerous of it.

 

[dasNdanger]

Very sad indeed. I haven't seen the tackle and have no desire to - just knowing it left a man paralyzed is sickening enough for me. His life is forever changed now, and even IF technology can help, he has a long, LONG road ahead. First, he's going to go through all those stages of grief (since the loss of function can be like the loss of a person). There's going to be guilt, anger, depression, and all the rest. Then it's going to be non-stop rehab and testing and maybe operations. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, nor make light of it in any way.

I wish him, and those who love him, all the best, and all the strength and courage in the world.



das

 

[Saints1]

I honestly, truly don't believe it was a dangerous tackle.

 

[William18]

I'm sure McKinnon - while he's trying to learn to walk again, or wipe his own ass - will really be feeling 7 weeks of not playing rugby is a grave injustice. You're right, had the tackle not left a man paralized - it would have been lighter. Someone who drink drives and runs someone over - also recieves a higher fine than if no one gets run over.

It's BS to say the game is getting lighter. Athletes are getting bigger and stronger - but their vertebrae aren't. It's fine being a fan and saying allow sholder charges and tip tackles, you don't have to worry not being able to walk, or getting alzheimers at 50. Getting a few weeks on the sidelines isn't justice for the harm they can do. If someone broke my neck on the street, it's 5 or so years in jail. Sport maybe an institution where there is inherant risk and we accept it when we play it - but I don't think it's too much to ask that athletes well being are looked out for.

Again to use another corny analogy, why ban sholder charges and not just punish the dangerous ones. It's like the equivelant of giving everyone a gun to shoot in the air, and then punishing people when they accidentally shoot someone. No, just don't give people guns to shoot in the air. There isn't a good reason for it and the potential risk far outweighs the reward.

I have no way of knowing what McKinnon feels so I will not make any presumptions. Using your implied impressions of what someone who can't walk would think.....well that's not how I try to prove my point.

All your post (and all anyones posts here and in the media) contain emotive reasoning - the very worst kind. Almost zero facts are being presented by anyone.

Don't worry Nick you are winning. Most rugby league fans saw nothing wrong with the tackle but public perception is going your way. Unfortunately it is that public perception which I think will kill off rugby some day.

 

[nickdnz]

I have no way of knowing what McKinnon feels so I will not make any presumptions. Using your implied impressions of what someone who can't walk would think.....well that's not how I try to prove my point.

All your post (and all anyones posts here and in the media) contain emotive reasoning - the very worst kind. Almost zero facts are being presented by anyone.

Don't worry Nick you are winning. Most rugby league fans saw nothing wrong with the tackle but public perception is going your way. Unfortunately it is that public perception which I think will kill off rugby some day.

Well here are the facts: McKinnon's hands and soon after head made contact with the ground before any other part of his body. His legs were past the horrizontal. His head made contact with the ground before his body, because his body and legs was being lifted by two players, while a third was forcing his head to ground. The chance for injury in these circumstances is high, whether it be a broken collar bone if the arm is able to break the fall, or if not a broken neck.

I don't see what argument you are making that's any less emotive. You are assuming that ruling against plowing a players head to ground will result in the end of rugby for goodness sake. My argument is entirely based on player well being - and McKinnon is a very obvious example that something is wrong. Furthermore; 7 weeks for a dangerous tackle which puts other players health in very serious risk is not unfair in the slightest.

I think it's worth posting the video for people to make up their own minds. If you don't wish to see it, that's completely understandable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-BmKXU12yE

 

[kenny_bee180]

It's obvious that many posts are from union fans giving a union point of view.
You have to remember this terribly unfortunate accident happened in a game of league. The usual procedure for such an incident is to award a penalty and put the offending player on report.
Whereas is union this offence is usually punished with a red card.



Brett ferres was sent of yesterday in The challenge cup game after performing a tip tackle (although I would argue it was much worse than the McKinnon tackle). I doubt, however, that if recent events haven't occurred then he wouldn't have been sent Off.

 

[dasNdanger]

There's always hope...

[h=1]Spinal cord work is unexpected shocker: 'This is a breakthrough'[/h]
CNN) -- At her research lab at the University of Louisville, neuroscientist Susan Harkema turned her back to her study subject to check a reading on a computer screen.

"Hey Susie, look at this," the patient called out to her. "I can move my toe!"

Startled, Harkema spun around. The purpose of her study, which involves sending electrical stimulation to broken spinal cords, was to learn more about nerve pathways, not to actually make patients move.

That must be an involuntary spasm, she thought. She asked the patient, Rob Summers, to lie down and close his eyes and follow her commands.

"Move your left toe," she said to him -- and he did. "Move your right toe," she asked -- and he did.
Paralyzed teen walks at graduation
"Holy s***!" she yelled out loud.

Over the next five years, Harkema's team applied electrical stimulation to three more paralyzed men, and all four developed movement, and not just small movements. In addition to wiggling their big toes, they can lift and swing their legs, move their ankles and sit up without support. Two patients can even do situps.

Their study, funded in part by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, is being published Tuesday in the journal Brain.
It's not the first time electrical stimulation has made paralyzed patients move, but Harkema says it's the first time electrical stimulation directly to the spinal cord has shown voluntary activity. Experts say this new technique is another piece of the puzzle toward helping paralyzed people walk again. And it's another avenue doctors can go down to try to help these patients.

Brain-controlled devices may help paralyzed people

"This is a breakthrough," says Dr. Barth Green, co-founder of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami, who was not involved in the research. "It shows you can have a living spinal cord under the layer of their injury."

More than 1,700 paralyzed people have inquired about using this technology, which involves surgically implanting a stimulator and giving it directions with an external remote control. The stimulator creates a small, slightly visible bulge in the lower abdomen and is connected to wires that send electrical pulses to the spinal cord.

But patients shouldn't expect that the stimulator will help them walk -- at least not now and maybe not ever. The stimulator can only make one leg work at a time. Patients have to turn the stimulator off and then back on again to make the other leg work or to make another set of muscles such as their torsos work.

Even though he can't walk, the stimulator has had other benefits.

Dustin Shillcox, the fourth patient to try the device, said he has dramatically improved bladder, bowel and sexual function.

"That's a difficult thing to go through life not having," he said. "It just changed my entire life. It's extraordinary and amazing."

Plus, tests showed the patients, who could finally move their legs and torsos after years of paralysis, became healthier in general with improved heart and respiratory function.

"If you can change health and wellness and life expectancy, to me that's a home run," Green says. "Remember, Christopher Reeve died from complications of immobility."

The researchers are pretty much stumped as to exactly why electrical stimulation to the spinal cord created the movement on demand -- after all, they didn't touch the patients' brains.

Perhaps, Harkema says, the spinal cord in a way has a brain of its own.

"Maybe the spinal cord makes the decision to move on its own and then executes the movement," Harkema says. "Otherwise I don't know how you would see what we see today."

The Louisville researchers now have funding to implant the device in eight more patients. They hope a device company will help them come up with a way to stimulate more than one muscle group at the time.

"I think what's incredibly exciting is we've opened up a realm of possibilities of what we can do now with people who are paralyzed, and we've just scratched the surface," she says.

Harkema says she hopes to have more "holy s***" moments in her research.

"I'll never live that down, and now it's the mantra of the lab," she says with a laugh.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/health/paralysis-breakthrough-spinal-cord/index.html?hpt=hp_t2


das

 

[ratsapprentice]

BUT - he has not been confirmed as being quadriplegic - that is media speculation.
At this stage there is a possibility of some degree of rehabilitation and recovery of ability.

"It's just a matter of time that hopefully I get a bit more movement in my legs. I've got a great sensational feeling through my legs. There are a lot of positive signs."

http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-lea...le-knights-alex-mckinnon-upbeat-over-recovery

Don't ever take any diagnosis in the immediate aftermath of a neck injury for granted - they are very unpredictable situations.