Skateboarding accident a lesson to all, doctors say

A helmet may have prevented the skull-cracking injury caused when Lisle teen Eric Field's head slammed off the pavement during a recent skateboarding accident, doctors say.

Field was one of three people with serious head injuries caused by extreme sports such as skateboarding, car surfing or "skitching" to arrive at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove in the past three weeks.

Field lived. Two others died.

That's why trauma leaders and neurosurgeons are pushing helmet use as one of the hospital's safety initiatives this year, they said at a Wednesday press conference.

"We want to promote that whatever activity you're doing: think about it. Be safe and be smart about it," Good Samaritan Trauma Director Michael Iwanicki said. "The injuries that Eric sustained, while they could have been avoided in the first place by not doing an activity so dangerous as skitching, would have been temporized by wearing a helmet."

Field was one of 50,000 people nationwide who will be injured on skateboards this year, Iwanicki said.

The 14-year-old Lisle youth was "skitching," or holding onto a moving vehicle while on a skateboard, when he fell Aug. 1.

Field's skull absorbed the injury by cracking in several places -- something doctor's say the helmet would have done instead.

Helmets are designed to absorb such crashes by cracking under the force and saving the head that injury, Iwanicki said.

Wednesday also marked Field's discharge to a rehabilitation facility, where he's expected to make close to a full recovery.

He'll always bear the scar on his neck from a tracheotomy and that of a feeding tube necessary after the accident, Neurosurgeon Stavros Maltezos said.

And he may never hear from his right ear again -- all injuries that may have been prevented by using caution and wearing a helmet.

That's where parents come in, Iwanicki said.

"It's going to come down to the parents," he said. "In my neighborhood, the parents are good about the kids having helmets, yet they're riding their bike without them right in front of their kids setting the example that once you grow up that you don't need to wear helmets. "

The hospital's informational efforts will include programs and educational packets to area youth and free helmets to injured skaters treated in the emergency department.

Additionally, staff will distribute free helmets at an event Sept. 8 at Good Samaritan, 3815 Highland Ave., where people may also take their own helmets and have them properly fitted.

For more information on the program, visit www.advocatehealth.com /gsam.