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Exodus Tyson hung with a treadmill cord; a random accident?
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by Amy Judd | May 26, 2009 at 06:27 pm
1125 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments
Exodus Tyson, the four year old daughter of ex-boxer Mike Tyson was found hanging by a treadmill cord, which was was playing nearby and accidentially became tangled in the rope. She was placed on life support, but she slipped into a coma and never woke up.
Is this a random accident?
Is exercise equipment dangerous?
Over 25,000 children are injured each year due to accidents with exercise equipment (this is an older statistic as well).
It appears that exercise bikes and jump ropes are the most dangerous for children. Bikes can amputate a finger or a toe and jump ropes have become tangled around childrens' necks and strangled them to death.
Dr. Allan R. Dejong, who has conducted a study said this:
"The statistics we looked at tell a disturbing story," says Gould. In more than 80 percent of the cases involving children, the victims were playing alone or unsupervised, he adds.
In 2001, a study was conducted on treadmills and how dangerous they can be to children.
“Most parents don’t regard treadmill machines as potential hazards,” said Benjamin Chang, M.D., a pediatric plastic surgeon at Children’s Hospital, and senior author of an article recently published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery. “Injuries to children from stationary bicycles have been much better publicized over the past decade, and manufacturers have modified their designs to make them safer, but treadmills have received less attention,” said Dr. Chang.
Dr. Chang suggests that the best way to prevent accidents, is to keep children away from the equipment altogether.
On a Mom's forum post, mothers discuss the dangers of having exercise equipment in the house when children are around.
Some tips to help protect children:
Keep excercise equipment our to reach of children andlocked up when not in use.
Do not have loud music on or wear headphones while working out in case your child comes up behind you and you don't hear them.
Tell children why it is dangerous for them to play near machines like this and make sure they understand what could happen.
Choose equipment that has a safety key or switch so that it can be easily turned off at a moment's notice.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 20:32 on May 26th, 2009
In light of the Tyson tragedy, maybe the fitness equipment industry should make the safety cord retractable so it doesn't hang from the machine when not in use. I was working out the other day and the cord was really getting in the way. I couldn't find a way to roll it up or even hook it to something.
The cord should be available to use, but not dangling from the machine.
at 20:36 on May 26th, 2009
I agree, good point.
at 08:12 on May 28th, 2009
Yeah!