With support from a grieving father and injury prevention researchers, two Johns Hopkins engineering students have designed and fabricated a new whitewater recreation helmet to better protect rafters and kayakers from life-threatening head injuries. The prototype and specifications will be patented by a nonprofit foundation that plans to mass-produce and sell the headgear at cost. Injury prevention experts also hope the project will bolster efforts to adopt stronger safety standards for whitewater helmets, similar to those in place for bicycle helmets and other sports gear.

The issue was brought to the attention of Johns Hopkins by Gil Turner, a Park City, Utah, resident whose 22-year-old son, Lucas Brandon Turner, died in 1998 while kayaking on the Payette River in Idaho. He was an expert whitewater kayaker, but somehow he was thrown into the river, Turner said. The force of the water pushed him head-first into a large boulder. He would have survived if his helmet had stayed in place, but it slipped backward and exposed his forehead. He sustained a fatal blow to the center of his forehead. The incident led Turner, a retired businessman, to found the Whitewater Research and Safety Institute, which co-funded the safer helmet development project with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The job of designing and fabricating the whitewater helmet was handed to two seniors enrolled in the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Senior Design Project course: Michael Cordeiro, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major from Easton, Md., and Chang Lee, 22, of Atlanta, who was completing a dual major in biomedical engineering and engineering mechanics.

The undergraduates were asked to study head injuries that occurred in whitewater sports and to design a helmet that would better absorb shocks and prevent injuries. The helmet had to be lightweight (less than 30 ounces), buoyant in w
'"/>

Contact: Phil Sneiderman
prs@jhu.edu
410-516-7907
Johns Hopkins University
15-May-2002

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. New study in Nature demonstrates protection against cell death during heart attack
2. Mouse model reveals potential way to reduce cardiac deaths in kidney patients
3. New estimates for the causes of child deaths worldwide
4. Cardiac deaths peak in sleep hours for patients with sleep apnea
5. Sudan surveys show high rates of death and malnutrition among displaced population
6. Risk of cardiac death after radiotherapy for breast cancer has declined, study finds
7. Study shows risk of cardiac death after radiation for breast cancer has dramatically decreased
8. Neuronal death and processing of Tau protein in Alzheimers disease
9. New guideline tackles leading cause of mother and child death
10. Tobacco industry pays scientists to challenge secondhand smokes link to infant death risk
11. Heart surgeons publish death rates