Cape May Answering Fewer C-Spine Injury Calls on Beaches

CAPE MAY – As of Tues., Aug. 10, 11 C-Spine injuries have been reported along the city’s beaches with eight injuries in July and 3 in August, according to City Manager Bruce MacLeod.
That figure is lower than last year. A story one year ago in the Herald reported the city’s beach patrol and fire rescue personnel has answered 20 C-Spine (neck, cervical and spine) injury calls as of June 26,2009.
At issue, beaches with sharp drop offs may be causing neck and spine injuries for body surfers and surfers here as a result of sand replenishment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps have been replenishing the city’s beaches since October 1999. Those who body surf are affected the most by running into a wall of sand at the shoreline.
MacLeod told the Herald there were 32 C-Spine injuries along Cape May’s beaches last summer.
On Aug. 7-8, an offshore storm produced higher surf conditions that may have contributed to two injuries. On Mon., Aug. 9, a 10 year-old boy was injured while Boogie Boarding off of the Madison Ave Beach. A MedEvac helicopter was requested to airlift the boy who was complaining of neck pain.
Firefighters transported the child to the Cape May Elementary School where he was airlifted to AtlaniCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City by MedEvac 5.
On Sun., Aug. 8, a 62 year-old male was airlifted to the trauma unit at Cooper University Hospital in Camden Sunday afternoon for a head injury. The unidentified man was reported to have been knocked off of a Boogie Board by a wave, which resulted in him hitting his head and shoulder in the area of the Howard Street Beach.
In March, the city promised to distribute at least 50,000 copies of a new beach safety brochure.
Chad DeSatnick, a former lifeguard who sustained a spinal injury while surfing here, has been approaching City Council for nine years to get a program created to warn the public of head, neck and spine injuries. He visited schools to teach students how to avoid C-Spine injuries.
DeSatnick has criticized the scope of the distribution of the brochures.
MacLeod said the city made brochures available in City Hall in the tax office, city clerk’s office and in the main hallway. Brochures are in place at the Welcome Center, beach tag headquarters and beach tag sales booths along the Promenade and at Lifeguard Headquarters.
MacLeod said beach taggers have the brochures but do not automatically hand them out to each beach patron. The brochures are also included through welcome bags placed in rental properties throughout the city, he said.
In the future, the city hopes to distribute brochures through hotels, motels and bed and breakfast inns, said MacLeod.
“We’re trying to approach it from a reasonable point of view but also we do want to make it available to hopefully educate our visitors and residents as to the various pieces of information that are included in the brochure,” he said.
The brochure also includes information on jellyfish stings, warning flags used by the beach patrol to indicate surf conditions, preventing sunburn and avoiding rip currents. It also provides information on which beaches are available for surfing and launching kayaks.
Earlier this year, DeSatnick said the majority of people getting injured here are not from Cape May.
The city’s take on the issue of C-Spine injuries, due to a dangerous shore break, is the responsibility falls with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection that are responsible for the beach renourishment program.
Last year, MacLeod said the original intent of the beach replenishment program was to provide protection to property, so the sand has a steeper slope than natural beaches.