Dislocated shoulder

[richardw38 0]

So there I was having a good time, went into a steep dive to catch a buddy, as I popped out of my dive into the normal belly position I felt a click, and had a somewhat floppy arm.

I told my buddy to get away from me, and managed to deploy the main with my left hand, but was prepared to grab the reserve. I was really hoping for no twists as I only had one hand left!!

Chute opened fine, I managed to get both toggles in one hand, couldn't see the Dz as I was above cloud, so I slowly spiraled down to below the cloud cover, found the DZ and managed a great one handed landing, just dropping to my knees when I landed. We were the first out of the plane so were down wind, I just flew straight into the DZ, the little bit of wind helped slow me down a bit at flare.

We tried to put the shoulder back in at the DZ but it wasn't happening, so I drove to the hospital, where they sorted me out. The gas took a while to arrive so I let the doc have a go while we waited. After 10 minutes of "fiddling" there was a wonderful "click". After that, a second xray to check its all ok, then I drove back to the DZ, for the rest of my day chatting an watching other jumps.

All in all, I think my first "injury" went pretty well. flaring with my weaker left hand is harder than I thought, but I had a good few practice goes up high.

As with all things Aussie, this was classified as an "incident" and required paperwork filling out, and I guess will appear in the next APF mag.

People have asked me about downsizing in the past, but I am glad I am in no rush, and also that I don't jump if I think the wind is a bit dodgy. I sat out all of Saturday as it was a bit blustery. I fly a Pilot 188, if I had downsized to a 170, and this had happened on Sat in the wind, where I was up wind, instead of down wind, the landing may not have been so graceful.

will be off to the doctors at some point to get a referral to a specialist so I can have my shoulder fixed properly. This is the third dislocation, first one in Skydiving.

Anyone know the "downtime" for a bit of shoulder surgery? I hope I don't miss the whole summer.

[excaza 1]

When I had my shoulder work done (labrum repair and removal of some cartilage, outpatient arthroscopic) it was 6 weeks to get out of the sling, and another few months before I was anywhere close to back up to speed. I certainly wouldn't push it, especially with the position our shoulders are in while belly flying.

YMMV, of course.

[koppel 4]

nice work buddy

glad we stuck with the 188 cos all the cool kids are downsizing slowly these days

I like my canopy...


...it lets me down.

[richardw38 0]

Thanks Koppel, me too. The Pilot flew awesomely, even with a halfwit, one armed pilot at the toggles.

[CornishChris 5]

Impressed you managed to deploy with your left hand - how exactly did you manage that?

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[Divalent 136]

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Impressed you managed to deploy with your left hand - how exactly did you manage that?

Yeah, I'd like to know, too!

(I just put my rig on and no way could I reach my BOC hackey with my left hand. - I could use my left arm to move my right arm sorta in position to grab it, but I don't know what sort of pull/throw a dislocated shoulder would allow.)

[richardw38 0]

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I could use my left arm to move my right arm sorta in position to grab it, but I don't know what sort of pull/throw a dislocated shoulder would allow.)

As I was pretty high when it happened, I did try that, but it would not have worked.

Maybe I have orangutang arms or something, but I simply reached round my back with my left hand, and was able to reach the far end of my BOC, grab my FF pud, extract the PC (making sure to extract the whole thing), and then flick it into the airstream.

Since I have been aware that my shoulder might be an issue one day, I have practiced reaching like this on the ground. Glad it worked out as it should in the air.

[jackwallace 3]

I think there is another thread about dislocated shoulders. The pros and cons of surgery vs strength training for skydiving. I've not had that injury, but jumped with a guy who's was so bad, he could roll on his back and put it back in, in freefall.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[erdnarob 1]

You can likely have a weakness in the shoulder by having too loose ligaments. A friend of mine had to give up skydiving because of recurrent dislocation of his shoulder. Personnaly, I have had three ligaments broken in the right shoulder (landing on my elbow). I got a two hours surgery by a shoulder specialist plus six months of physiotherapy. Now my right shoulder is working better than the left one. Surgeons are doing miracles sometimes.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[Periapt 0]

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You can likely have a weakness in the shoulder by having too loose ligaments. A friend of mine had to give up skydiving because of recurrent dislocation of his shoulder. Personnaly, I have had three ligaments broken in the right shoulder (landing on my elbow). I got a two hours surgery by a shoulder specialist plus six months of physiotherapy. Now my right shoulder is working better than the left one. Surgeons are doing miracles sometimes.

Strictly speaking, there are no ligaments holding the shoulder in place. The head of the humerus is held in place in the glenoid fossa of the scapula (shoulder blade) by the muscles and tendons of the rotator cuff. Ligaments that hold joints together connect bones to bones with no intervening muscle tissue.

The bloke from Australia took quite a risk taking the brakes off his reserve. If he could only get one brake unstowed he would have spiraled in. The same thing could also have happened if he was unable to flare symmetrically. Good for him that he made it work.

[DocPop 1]

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Strictly speaking, there are no ligaments holding the shoulder in place...

What about these:


Ligaments of the AC joint: Capsular; superior and inferior acromioclavicular; articular disk; coracoclavicular (trapezoid and conoid)
Ligaments of the Sternoclavicular joint: Capsular; anterior and posterior sternoclavicular; inter- and costo- clavicular; articular disk
Ligaments of the GH joint: Capsular; coracohumeral; glenohumeral; transverse humeral; glenoid of humerus


Are they just for decoration?

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[DivingWombat 0]

Hey, glad you made it safely to the ground!
Can you explain me how to deploy with the left hand? Me for myself can't imagine how I could ever reach the handle with the left hand. But maybe I'm just too bulky ;)

In regards to the shoulder surgery: "Please don't do it!" There are many other ways to get your shoulder stabilized. A surgery can make things just worse. The best one would be a good workout. Train your shoulders and they won't pop off anymore.

[richardw38 0]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

To deploy, I just reached around my back with my left hand, and was able to reach my Pud. I will take a pic when I get home tonight.

As for surgery, this is the first negative comment re surgery, I will of course take that comment on board, and am seeing a specialist today. If there is an alternative to cutting me open, then I'm happy to consider it. I just want to be (fairly) sure my shoulder can get healed. I'm fairly sure the reason this happened is that I have/had got complacent about my "weak" shoulder, and didn't think about it when coming out of my steep dive. If I had kept greater control over my arm, instead of just popping in to the belly position (too relaxed), this wouldn't have happened. I'll see what the Doc says this afternoon.

i think I made all the right choices during this incident. My chute is a Pilot 188 (loaded at 1:1), not exactly the Ferrari of the sky, so removing the brakes one at a time was easy. I also made sure to keep the left brake in my hand as I removed the right one, this meant I was applying the left brake as I reached for the right brake. I also had plenty of altitude, so if things got nasty I could always had cut away and use my Res. I also had time to test my one (weak, left) handed flare, and although I could only flare half way, I could keep the toggles in the middle, making it an even flare. The wind was also nice and steady, so I didn't have to worry to much about last minute adjustments.

i did not use my Res.

[Shredex 0]

What are these exercises? I don't have shoulder problems but I'd like to train them if it means I'll be more resistant to it.

[excaza 1]

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In regards to the shoulder surgery: "Please don't do it!" There are many other ways to get your shoulder stabilized. A surgery can make things just worse. The best one would be a good workout. Train your shoulders and they won't pop off anymore.

Applying this broad brush is very bad advice. While therapy and training can fix and prevent many future issues, depending on the injury they can also exacerbate the problem. The best course of action is to go with what the physician recommends.

[Periapt 0]

Quote

Quote

Strictly speaking, there are no ligaments holding the shoulder in place...

What about these:


Ligaments of the AC joint: Capsular; superior and inferior acromioclavicular; articular disk; coracoclavicular (trapezoid and conoid)
Ligaments of the Sternoclavicular joint: Capsular; anterior and posterior sternoclavicular; inter- and costo- clavicular; articular disk
Ligaments of the GH joint: Capsular; coracohumeral; glenohumeral; transverse humeral; glenoid of humerus


Are they just for decoration?

Touche'
I was thinking of the stabilization of the humeral head at the highly mobile glenohumeral joint. The capsular ligaments are integral parts of the joint capsule which must allow for the great freedom of movement that the shoulder has. These can be torn when there is a dislocation. The others mentioned are certainly part of the shoulder girdle and are less compliant and more like the ligaments of other joints.

My apologies and thanks for pointing out my lack of precision.

RGJ.