From Dr. T.W. Garrison, Lake of the Ozarks General Hospital, Osage Beach, Mo.

Personal watercraft are contributing to a rapid increase in trauma on the Lake of the Ozarks. Closed head injuries, flail chests with hemopneumothoraxes, shattered spleens, kidneys and livers are the most common injuries encountered. Contributing factors include young operators, high speed, alcohol consumption, and less fear of the propless craft.

MVAs (motor vehicle accidents) still rate the #1 trauma ranking. Alcohol ingestion contrib utes to about two-thirds of these serious injuries. Four emergency room physicians, three orthope dists and three general surgeons are kept jumping May through September. Patients with serious closed head injuries are flown to the University of Missouri in Columbia by the Staff For Life helicopter.

Water ski injuries are mainly lacerations from the tip of the ski. Ski ropes produce more serious degloving type injuries. There are a multitude of fish hooks to be extracted. Bungee jumping is new, but surprisingly there have been no serious injuries. Likewise, para-sailing has produced few injuries. (See: Francis RA, Vize R. Personal watercraft injuries. Mo.Med. 91:5, May 94)

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