[TY] TYF - Safety, Part 3 (fwd)

[Matthew R. Popalisky]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 16:07:55 -0600 (CST)
From: "David L. Backlin" <dbackli at comp.uark.edu>
To: mrp at engr.uark.edu
Subject: [TY] TYF - Safety, Part 3 (fwd)

Told you there was more :)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 96 20:37:00 GMT 
From: w.colbert2 at genie.com
Reply-To: meridies at web.ce.utk.edu
To: meridies at web.ce.utk.edu
Subject: [TY] TYF - Safety, Part 3

ASSESSMENT OF RISKS IN SCA COMBAT

I am not an expert in risk assessment.  I defer, therefore, to
those who are.  Master Tivar has provided an analysis of injuries
due to period fencing:

   "2. What kinds (with examples) of injuries have there been
   from fencing in the SCA in the time it has existed?

   There have been three classes of injuries: Fixed blade,
   broken blade and field-related.

   Fixed blade: these are injuries from an unbroken, legal
   blade.  One example is the famous "Tivar's nose" incident. I
   was hit in the face with a pistol-grip epee hard enough to
   shove the mask back on my head, dent the grillwork slightly
   and put a 1/8 inch cut on the bridge of my nose. Due to
   being very "pumped up" at the time, I bled rather
   spectacularly, although there was no serious damage done.
   (This is the incident that the rumor mill later reported as
   my death.)  A more typical example would be a fighter
   getting a badly bruised rib from an over-hard shot.

   Broken blade injuries fall into two sub-categories.  The
   "tangle" scenario is where a blade becomes entangled in an
   opponent's blade and arm, is stressed in several directions
   at once, and breaks. This is usually not too dangerous,
   because most forward motion is finished before the break
   occurs.  The "hit-bend-break-hit again" scenario is the
   dangerous one. This is what happened in Trimaris, this is
   how at least two of the three known deaths in modern fencing
   happened (I don't have hard data on the third one.) This is
   the reason we wear 12-kilo masks, and why we punch-test
   armor. Before the incident in Trimaris, the worst reported
   injuries were a couple of 1/4 inch deep punctures, and a
   deep scratch on a fighter's forearm.

   Field-related injuries are all the twisted knees and ankles
   that are an inherent hazard of *any* activity happening on
   rough ground.

   Statistically, I have seen a roughly equal number of each
   type of injury, for a total of about thirty injuries over
   the past 17+ years.

           -Tivar Moondragon
   Deputy Society Marshal for Rapier Combat"

In more than 21 years of authorized fighting, I have sufferred
two broken arms and a broken thumb, as well as lesser injuries.
I find an activity-wide total of thirty injuries over that length
of time remarkably low.

The analysis that follows is again by Dr. Ernoehazy.  His
qualifications are listed within the analysis.  I would advise
Your Majesties that this gentle was invited by the Board of
Directors to address them at the April 1996 meeting in Trimaris,
on the subject of safety and liability for SCA combat and
chirurgeonate matters.  He is an experienced expert witness, and
has served many kingdoms:

   "Dear Mr. Colbert:

   I understand that there are concerns in your region about the
   safety of SCA rapier combat.  Permit me to offer some
   observations.

   To begin, let me re-establish my curriculum vitae.  I am a Naval
   officer, and a board certified specialist in emergency medicine,
   with interests in prehospital care and wilderness medicine.  In
   the SCA, Inc., I have been a past Kingdom Chirurgeon and have
   been one of the principal War Chirurgeons for Estrella 10 and 11,
   as well as an invited lecturer ar Estrella 12.  I am a Companion
   of the Order of the White Scarf, Trimaris, as well as a novice
   fighter in heavy combat.  In the Naval realm, my training has
   been based in civilian trauma centers, and is extensive...
   furthered by the injuries that Marines tend to accumulate at
   play.  I have been accepted after voir dire as an expert witness
   in emergency medicine and injuries by multiple Federal and
   Superior Court criminal jurisdictions, as well as by several
   different court-martial authorities in the Naval Service and the
   Marine Corps.

   The crux of the issue, as it has been presented to me, is that
   SCA rapier combat is *allegedly* inherently too unsafe to allow.
   In order for this assertion to be true, it requires the
   assumption that the SCA's principal martial art, armored combat,
   is safe at an acceptable level of risk, as it is practiced
   everywhere, and has specific pride of place in the selection of
   ceremonial officers.

   If this assumption is accepted as valid -- which, as a fighter in
   heavy armor as well as rapier, I do accept -- then it is
   legitimate and necessary to clearly understand the risks of heavy
   combat, and compare them to the risks of rapier combat.

   As to demonstrated severity of potential injuries in heavy
   weapons combat:  In the SCA, I have *personally* atended two
   heavy weapons injuries which were, IN MY PROFESSIONAL opinion,
   "near-miss" fatalities (i.e., "if that blow had been just a
   LITTLE..."  )

   One was a solid head shot with greatsword, not felt by marshal,
   onlookers, or victim to have been excessive.  The patient had
   transient loss of consciousness and persistent neck pain.  On
   further evaluation in hospital, the patient was found to have a
   small/stable neck fracture from the blow.  "If that had been a
   LITTLE harder," the injury could have been unstable, with death
   or paralysis the result.

   The second was a fighter who was fallen upon in melee by several
   co-combatants when a shield wall broke in disarray.  This
   fellow's armor actually *broke* under the force of the fall,
   although neither myself, nor several senior marshals in
   attendance, felt the armor to have been defective on
   re-evaluation.  Persistent severe abdominal pain led to an
   evaluation at the regional trauma center, where a bruised spleen
   was found on CT scan.  The patient was observed for 24 hrs before
   release.  Blunt abdominal trauma which is sufficient to injure
   the spleen can often rupture this brittle organ, leading to
   fracture and massive internal bleeding.  Such an injury can be
   fatal on the scene.

   I would expect, since these events happened in only one location
   (Estrella War) over a 2 year span, that review of the corporate
   records of the marshallate and the chirurgeonate would uncover
   many other instances of such potentially catastrophic injuries
   over the SCA's 31 year history.

   Even if NO other injuries ever happened in the SCA, 2
   *documented* near miss incidents in 31 years of armored combat
   compares with 1 *documented* near miss in 21 years of SCA
   fencing.  The data does not support an assumption that rates of
   severe injury are worse in the rapier community.

   My experience as a chirurgeon suggests, of course, that less
   serious injuries happen all the time... as the waivers and
   disclaimers issued by every reputable armorer in the SCA, and the
   BoD's mandated fighter waiver system, would suggest.  Certainly,
   in the realm of significant but not life-threatening injuries,
   the heavy field is much more likely to produce severe orthopedic
   or abdominal injuries.

   From the standpoint of the mundane world at large, BOTH forms of
   martial arts compare favorably with the 2+ *fatalities* per year
   arising from high school football each year, due to technique
   errors and inappropriate coaching.

   Clearly, review of injury data indicate that both forms of SCA
   martial art are of essentially equal risk to the participant, and
   that both arts are substantially less risky than commonly
   accepted, mundane athletic pursuits.

   There are also comments made from time to time that safety
   supervision in the SCA may be inadequately rigorous for safe
   rapier combat.  Such comments are, in their very nature, prone to
   be anecdotally based, and often represent a local aberration of
   poor judgment, or lack of hard data, rather than systematic
   error.

   Similar examples can be found in the heavy weapons marshallate.
   For example, the broken field battlesite at Estrella War.  This
   chewed up wash is tactically challenging, and felt to be quite
   enjoyable to move armies in.  On the other hand, it produces more
   orthopedic injuries than all other battles combined, in my prior
   experience.  Further, it is accepted practice for the host army
   to comb the broken battlefield after hostilities have ceased, in
   order to find any injured people that have not been able to get
   out on their own.  To put it mildly, that suggests a tacit
   admission on the part of the Marshallate in Atenveldt that they
   are playing on markedly unsafe terrain... which, from a risk
   management perspective, is simply indefensible.  One wonders how
   the SCA's insurance firm would react if they knew of such
   habitual practice.

   In the realm of insuffient data, the evolving standards of heavy
   armor combat over 31 years are eloquent testimony that the SCA's
   heavy weapons community used to act in a blatantly unsafe
   fashion, and only gradually have become safer.  (Think:  Freon
   Helms.)

   I can see no evidence of systematic lack of safety concern,
   however, in EITHER SCA martial art.  In fact, as we inspect our
   armors for safety before play, we are already holding to a higher
   standard than most civlian arts and sports.  No coach nor trainer
   habitually inspects helmets before high school football games...

   In summary, as a physician specialist and accepted expert
   witness, I can find no defensible reason to assert that SCA
   rapier combat is less safe, less risk-prone, than SCA armored
   combat.  Both arts enjoy a remarkable safety record compared to
   many accepted mundane sports.  Please feel free to contact me at

   billernoe at earthlink.net

   with further questions or requests for clarification.

   Cordially,
   Dr. William S. Ernoehazy, Jr, MD
   CDR (S)   MC   USNR
   Diplomate, American Board of Emergency Medicine
   in the SCA and Trimaris, Don Giovanni di Fiamma"

SAFETY - SUMMATION

Your Majesties, I have addressed here, from my experience, and
that of other knowledgeable gentles, the safety issues You raised
in Your message in the Tavern Yard.  One incident did not occur
at all.  The second, unfortunately, was the FIRST serious fencing
incident in the history of Society period fencing.  As is
appropriate, it is being evaluated by the fencing marshallate,
and procedures are being worked out to prevent a future similar
occurrence.

I have also provided testimony concerning the relative safety of
both period fencing and rattan combat.  It is clear that both
are relatively safe, so long as the rules and conventions are
obeyed, and can be dangerous if they are not.

In consequence, it is clear that based on Your Majesties'
statement (above) that safety alone was the reason for the abrupt
and early termination of the fencing experiment in Meridies, that
honesty demands that You reinstate it for the balance of the
evaluation period.