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Death Has Cheerleading In The Spotlight
By Bloggaman | April 25, 2008
If you haven’t seen the story yet, a cheerleader named Lauren Chang recently died after she was kicked in the chest during a cheerleading competition. With her death come requests by her parents to provide better safety standards so something like this doesn’t happen again.
Now first, my heart goes out to the family of Lauren Chang. Losing a child is a terrible thing to have to deal with and I wouldn’t want anyone to go through it. Whenever there is a death in a competition like this there is always a call to increase safety. My question is, if cheerleading is so dangerous, why wasn’t someone asking for changes before Ms. Chang died? Why does it always take a death to make changes? Will changes help?
What bothers me is that this was an accident. According to the story, paramedics were there within five minutes of the accident happening.
It was an unfortunate accident but could it have been prevented? Could the EMT’s have saved her even if they were right there when it happened? A number of people have stated they didn’t notice how she was hurt so would they have known what to check?
Unfortunately there are a number of accidental deaths each year. Most of them are preventable if someone had used some common sense. At the same time, some are freak accidents and although preventable, are just shocking. Here are some examples of accidents or deaths that make your heart sink.
- A 4-year-old boy collapsed and died after he wandered in front of a “pitch-back” net and was accidentally struck in the chest by a baseball thrown by another youth.
- The death of seven-year-old Nader Parman II was a complete shock. Playing a game of pick-up baseball in his front yard, the Georgia boy was hit in the chest by a ball, dying within minutes.
- An 11-year-old Atchison middle school student has died after collapsing during physical education class.
- A 14-year-old Evans, Ga., girl suddenly got sick and died during physical education class.
That is four kids that died doing nothing more than being a kid. A couple were accidents and a couple just happened due to a fluke health issue. The two with health issues had obviously been to doctors before and nothing was seen during regular checkups. Unfortunately kids die and it isn’t always preventable.
Now could Lauren Chang have been saved had EMT’s been present? Maybe but we will never know. Would you expect someones lung to collapse after being hit in the chest? I wouldn’t think so. I have been hit in the chest many times and not had a problem. It was a freak accident or that combined with a freak health issue that happened to her. It is unfortunate and it is hard to imagine losing kids so young. As a parent it is a fear we all have.
We will never be able to protect every kid and we will lose some to oddball things like those listed above. I think common sense is the cure for many things. There are so many times that common sense isn’t being used and people get hurt or killed. Lauren Chang did nothing wrong. Neither did any of the four kids listed above that died. Death is part of life and can’t always be prevented. We just need to all use common sense a little more and we will be better off. Everyone be safe and do your best to keep your kids safe.
Topics: Current Events, Parenting |
April 25th, 2008 at 8:38 am
First of all, it was not a fluke. Cheerleading injuries occur everyday. More than 50% of female catastrophic injuries in high school and college sports result from cheerleading. And if a flyer is being thrown and is spinning in th air why would one not think it is a enough momentum to hurt another teammate?
As for no one asking for safety before she hurt; that is just not true. Parents have been calling for safety for over 4 years. http://www.nationalcheersafety.com
Injuries happen in all sports but only after every effort is made to insure safety is in place including reporting injuries, studying injuries, research, biomechanics, safety equipment and education of coaches. If cheerleading were doing all that and then there were injuries, maybe then I could call them a fluke or accident. Until then, all I can say is that I knew it was going to happen, it was only a matter of when.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I agree, cheerleading is a dangerous sport but could they have prevented the accident? She was kicked in the chest and both lungs collapsed. What could they do to prevent that from happening?
A cheerleader could get hurt in so many ways I am also curious what they can do to help prevent all the different injuries from happening. It is too bad that someone has to die to get the attention to websites such as the one you are affiliated with. Thanks for your comments. It is good information.