Helmet Shopping

I'm sure most of you have heard the news of actress Natasha Richardson's skiing accident. She fell down during a ski lesson on a beginner slope in Quebec, and two days later she was dead. Being a skier, a lot of the story did not make sense to me until the details began emerging recently. Initially, the news reports said that Natasha took a slight spill on the flat part of a bunny hill, but got up and appeared fine. Her ski instructor, however, immediately called the ski patrol over to have her examined. While out skiing, I see people fall constantly, yet I have never seen the ski patrol summoned to check on anyone. I figured that Natasha must have hit her head fairly hard for her instructor to be so concerned. As it turns out - and I only learned this today - she actually lost consciousness for a brief time. That would definitely be troubling, and now it makes sense that everyone, except Natasha apparently, was so worried. The head of the trauma team at Montreal's largest hospital also said today that it was most likely Quebec's lack of a survival helicopter that led to the delay in treatment that turned out to be fatal in this case. Ugh.

There is a lot of debate swirling around about the use of helmets while skiing. Adam and Jacob wear them, but Jim and I never have. We have noticed more and more helmets on skiers and boarders this past year, though, especially out west. Studies have shown that helmet-wearers are not necessarily immune to head injuries, but below certain speeds, helmets are certainly beneficial. Regardless of any statistics, I plan to buy myself a helmet for skiing, and I'm sure that Jim will want one, too. I bet they are on sale now, since it is the end of the ski season, so hopefully we can find some good deals.