ABSTRACT
The worldwide stigma to the Olympic sport of diving is unwarranted. The reality is that these tragedies typically involve self-taught, recreational swimmers going headfirst into various shallow aquatic environments. Spinal cord injuries are caused by a trauma to the vertical column. This trauma effects the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the body's systems that control sensory, motor, and autonomic functions below the level of the injury itself. Half of all diving injuries come as a result of people diving into lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, quarries, oceans, embayments, reservoirs, ponds, and other water areas. Common sense would suggest that these contain murky water where seeing below the surface or being able to discern depth is impossible. Shallow water is the enemy. That is not to put all responsibility on the participants or the victim, or to absolve all the other parties that may be liable in the event of an accident.
