Soo.. how? Just one sided team jerks the other real hard or what?

I can’t help but feel something is missing from this story. I played tug of war dozens of times as a kid and never heard of such an event happening. Yet in this one instance TWO kids had their right hands nearly severed?

And the mention of the second boy is ignored in the title and glossed over in the mainbody. How is he doing (the other one seems to be progressing reasonably well, I guess)

What was on the other side of the rope…a tractor?

There are some big gaps here!

He most likely wrapped his hands in the rope, and when the other team yanked, it cinched down and severed the hand. I had a friend have that happen when he was tubing.

Just another example of the extraneous stuff that our education system is bogged down with. Let’s get back to educating instead of entertaining.

I simply think that teens-and people in general-need to be more careful about what they’re doing, because the human body is already so fragile, and it becomes only more fragile with rough activity like that.

I realize this incident happened several months ago but what I have to say really goes without saying. Where were the PE instructors during this gross display of negligence? Why were the students not instructed in the proper way to pull on a rope? Seems that is the real story and the problem for most young adults. They have ZERO guidance, no proper role models and even more brutal consequences to face for their actions today. Yet time and again they are let down by inadequate authority figures choosing to look the other way or plain ignoring the dangers involved. When will teachers begin to focus on prevention & safety rather than getting our children off the hook after the fact? This all to well could have been prevented with just a shred of adult supervision. Do they not teach the laws of energy and force in science class? Apparently not; how unfortunate for these two individuals! And to think they took dodge ball away from us when I was a kid over one student’s bloody nose. Some people will never learn and are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Geoff Parmenter
Michigan, USA

Thank God that his hands are still functional!

As to why they severed? Perhaps the rope was thin and wrapped around his wrist. Also, some kids are not athletic minded in that they will abuse their body, rather than use their muscles.

I don’t thik the school showed gross display of negligence. I think very few people realize the danger involved in this game. I had never heard of this happening until seeing a story about it on tv 6 months ago. This story should be sent to schools nationwide so they are aware of what can happen.

WOW! Almost the same thing happened to me in 11th grade. The rope snapped about a foot from my hand. I had a brief emergency room visit and lost my thumb nail, but was OK. Sounds like he wrapped the rope around his wrist to get a better grip. Mr Parmenter is correct about the need for guidance at events like these!

It just goes to show you that even a rope can be harmful. In other words, don’t do anything that could cause injury, I firmly believe we should all stay away from rope, cars, trucks, bikes, skatboards, wakeboards, surfboards, scooters, skates, sleds, pogo sticks, sit-n-spin, slides of any kind-including-water, sliding boards, slip-n-slides, sliding glass doors, screen doors, wal-mart greeters, sno men, so-women, basket weavers, iron men, iron women, people with atheltic skill, morticians, politicians “the same as morticians in a sense”, and people with gout, parkinsons, leppers…please have an open mind to these precautions, everyone of these examples – people or small animals have either died or have been maimed…..its true I say..why? I read it on the internet

Yeah great idea, lets put the kids in a bubble and watch after them 24/7 and let them figure out nothing on their own. That way when they’re adults they can live in my basement.

The article does not specify the type of rope. Nylon rope should never be used for Tug-of-War.
It stretches and puts a tremendos strain on the rope, digging the hands into the rope strands. It is very strong, but it can be broken. when this happens the strands immediatly return to the normal state and the hands turn to hamburger.
All instructers and supervisors should be aware of the consequences of using nylon rope to the breaking point.
Larry

I would just like to say that I think a couple of these comments are a little rediculous. I am not a teacher in any means but I was a student in high school once and I noticed that accidents happen. In a gym class of some times over one hundred students it is impossible to keep an eye on every one and prevent every injury. If people had to worry about getting injured with every activity it would drive them crazy! Kids in school can get hurt in any sport. A girl I went to school with was just running around the track and accidentally fell and broke her knee. But should she blame the teachers? If they start taking away every activity in gym class that has a possiblity of injury we will fill our country with more obesity problems with lazy unactive children. People need to stop pointing fingers of blame and start realizing that sometimes accidents just happen!

Some years ago there was an incident in Japan where several people were engaged in a tug of war and the rope snapped, severing limbs…i’m wondering if this is what happened to these boys….

Accidents happen!!!! I can’t believe that Rick is against FUN in school? It was a pep rally, there was tug of war….HIGH SCHOOL has to be fun. It’s studying, and pep rally’s, and football games, and sports…it isn’t all work no play. Noone would make it through if it wasn’t fun. Kids work hard, and are allowed to enjoy themselves. I assume you didn’t go to Prom, or Homecoming, or Friday Night football games. I was on student coucil some 10 years ago in highschool, hanging flyers and stapled my pointer finger, through the nail. Who’s fault is that?? MINE. My stupid, non-paying attention fault. It was in the gym. I guess I could blame the gym teacher who was there…. Kids are kids, they fool around, they get hurt, they learn. Accidents happen!!!!!

I don’t think there was any negligence here. Unless, of course, they were tugging with dental floss, or bailing wire. I’ve played tug-of-war too many times to remember a number. I’ve never heard of anything other than a pulled muscle, or possibly a dislocated shoulder. What I’d like to know; where is Paul Harvey with….”The rest of the story”.

Mike Smith
Northeast PA

I have heard of this happening before. I suspect they were using a nylon rope. Nylon will stretch and when it snaps its like a steel cable it will spring back causing a lot of damage.

whats next decappitations during dodgeball?

These stories are so upsetting to me. People must understand, POLYMER ROPES CANNOT BE USED FOR TUG-OF-WAR!
Only natural fiber multi-stranded ropes can be used for this. Cotton or hemp ropes will not “snap” like that and sever hands etc. Also the rope must be rated at least 20% to 50% more than it is being used for. Maybe FOXNEWS can do a public service announcement on this.

The second boy is mentioned in the title – “Teens’ hands nearly severed” indicates two with the S-apostrophe. But the article was poorly written in that you couldn’t tell which boy they were talking about.

I think this is terrible and I am glad both seem to be recovering as quickly as can be expected. But I am concerned how the school will react. True, there needs to be reasonable questioning (What kind of rope was used? How do we teach kids the proper technique for tug-of-war? etc.) and a change in procedure.

I fear the school will not do the common sense thing but rather do something stupid like ban tug-of-war like they’ve banned tag and other physical games from the playground. Then they wonder why there’s an obesity problem…

Life is a risk. Life has dangers. We cannot put our youth in a bubble and expect them to be able to magically cope in a dangerous, sometimes violent world the day they turn 18. It isn’t going to happen that way.

You can’t monitor all the people all the time. Things like this will happen. We can only hope that from this injury at least a school full of kids learned from it.
I’d also like to see more about the story. Seems we as Americans only got to see what the media wanted us to see.

As a teacher I have seen some scary tug-of-wars. Two years ago, our anchor had the loop wrapped around her waist and wound up screaming in pain as she was dragged across the field. The problem is the stopping never actually takes place unless you have a really good referee with a whistle.

Why didn’t someone go to jail for this?

I wonder if he was hot…

Some of the above comments are rediculous! The comment above from Russ can’t be serious. Why don’t we find a rubber room to live in!!

I was on a competitive tug-o-war team during my college years. We were in some pulls that lasted up to 45 minutes or longer. Once the pull was over you could barely move. We never had any real serious accidents like the one in the article. As on reader mentioned something is definately missing here.

The comment from another reader about recieving a similar injury from tubing doesn’t add anything either. I still tube/ski and comparing a tug-o-war match to 260 h.p. boat yank’n ya out of the water is not quite a fair comparison.

This past summer my kids wanted to go cliff jump’n at the lake we vacationed at. I took the boat over and trolled the area looking for large boulders, dove in closer to the cliff and checked it out the best I could. I did have the kids keep thier life jackets on and they and I had a blast.

As one reader commented above, accidents happen!

Everyone needs to go out an enjoy the gift of life and be as careful as possible. I believe that’s the way God intended it!

Have fun everyone

HOW?????? I’ve never heard of something like that happening! Did they wrap the rope around their arms or something? How does that happen?

Goodness people…. If we let you run things we’d never be able to do anything…we had better ban football, you can break your neck. Heck forget about student driving class, you can get killed out there on the streets. What about cheerleadding, can’t throw anybody too high, might break and arm on the way down. No more water polo, those folks end up drowning each other. Cancel that baseball practice, you can lose an eye or get a nice dent in your head. And forget about diving, …oh wait…lawyers took care of this one. No more dodge ball and other fun games.

We’ll be left with a pantywaist society of wimps who can do nothing but brag about their highscore on guitar hero….. better ban that too if it’s on the wii.

How did it happen ?????

My question is for Jason….who in the world should go to jail for this??? It was a pep rally for goodness sake! If a child is walking next to you on a sidewalk and he falls and breaks his leg should you go to jail because you were simply there and didn’t catch him before he fell or didn’t tell him to be careful while walking? We need to stop saying that people need to go to jail for stupid things like this and put people away who really deserve to be there!

Sarah said this earlier

“I simply think that teens-and people in general-need to be more careful about what they’re doing, because the human body is already so fragile, and it becomes only more fragile with rough activity like that.”

*my opinion
I would disagree – it’s attitudes like these that lead to children and adults that can’t take a beating of any kind. Rough activity isn’t necessarily harmful, common sense is lacking in these situations- this is the underlying problem.

The human body is amazingly resilient when exposed to everyday weathering, and not only weathering but the human body has an amazing capability to repair itself.

This isn’t about being “more careful” – this issue should teach the lesson “be smarter” – if kids want to be dumb about rough activity let them, hopefully they will learn something. Although common sense of parental or guardian supervision should keep children from overdoing these life lessons.

I think we should burn all the ropes in this world because they are a clear and present hazard. The only way to assure safety is to destroy all the ropes!

PARKER, Colo. — One teenager has been released from the hospital and another remained in serious condition after their hands were severely injured during a game of tug-of-war at school.

Henry Bennett and classmate Mitch Helfer were participating in a team-building activity at Lutheran High School in Parker on Oct. 12 when the accident happened.

Bennett’s doctor told Denver television station KMGH that the 16-year-old wrapped the rope around the palm of his right hand for a better grip.

“At some point a bunch of the kids let go, creating an imbalance in the tugging, and it pulled his hand off. The medical term is avulsed,” said Dr. Lewis Oster, a microsurgeon with Hand Surgery Associates in Denver.

Bennett underwent a 10-hour surgery to save his hand. He was released from the hospital Wednesday. Helfer, who suffered a very similar injury, remained in the hospital, according to Oster.

A representative for Denver Health told KMGH that Helfer was listed in serious condition Thursday evening.

Oster performed the delicate surgery on Bennett’s hand, first repairing bones with titanium plates. Then, muscles and microscopic veins and arteries were reattached.

While it could be several weeks before it’s known how much movement Bennett will regain in his hand, Oster is optimistic.

“Based on the condition of the tissue, I’ll think he’ll have a good outcome and a fully functional hand,” Oster said, while adding that 40 percent of avulsion injuries are successfully repaired.

Henry’s mother told KMGH her son remains upbeat.

“He says it’s brought people together,” Reggie Barrett said. She also shared a portion of poem her son recently wrote: “‘I may have been injured, but my eyes have been opened. The future has a mind of its own.’”

Mitch Helfer’s family has declined requests for interviews at the hospital.

Friends and classmates at Parker’s Lutheran High School are planning an upcoming fundraiser to offset medical bills.

Signs posted around the private, Christian school read, “Their hands are in His hands.”

Look, all I’m saying is there are right ways and a wrong ways to do anything you want. This story brings to mind more than just a length of rope. The sad truth is 90% of you would sue the rope manufacture! Or a gun manufacture for that matter when in the right hands a pistol is perfectly harmless until an idiot points it towards an innocent victim and pulls the trigger. I’m concerned about any form of danger. Power tools for instance, you wouldn’t hand a kid a reciprocating saw and say I’m going to let you make your own mistakes in life. But now that you have read the wrong way to play tug-of-war as described by Dr. Lewis Oster it is clearly obvious these two students were never taught the right way. After the average age of accountability, say 18 yrs, you may attempt to try anything you like and have but yourself to blame. Until then it is our job and the responsibility of legal guardians, authority figures and certainly teachers to teach! For instance, I work with old farm equipment, chain saws, rifles etc. and take full responsibility for teaching my children the proper way to handle stuff like that. Anything less coming from a Mother and Father is foolish parental neglect.

O my goodness people. I teach. I watch kids at recess. But they still manage to fall down and get scraped up occasionally. Lay off the educators and coaches. I can quite confidently assure you that those teachers and coaches in charge of the pep rally were aware of the risks – as were the kids I am sure – and did what they could to make it safe. I highly doubt that they knew the kids’ hands were in such grave danger. I found humor in previous posts that not only scolded the educators of the school, but the whole education system as well. Not to mention those that took it to another level – kids don’t have any good role models, they are neglected by the parents, etc… Give me a break. I just hate it when something like this turns into a, “And that’s what’s wrong with America!!” speech. People, it happened, its truly unfortunate, but lay off the teachers. I ASSURE you, we handle enough to account for 3 or 4 jobs. Good grief.