Prevention

The risk of suffering from a spinal cord injury is considerably higher than generally assumed. Worldwide, every four minutes a traffic accident – which account for over half of all injuries – an accident at work, at home, during sports or leisure activities leads to spinal paralysis.

That is the reason why it is crucial to set active standards in the field of prevention. Wings for Life helped to optimize one of the worldwide first neck guard (Leatt Brace®), which avoids in comparison to other protection devices hyperextension and hyperflexion of the cervical spine.

Further to this successful result, the foundation sets itself

• • Protection devices, which are available at the moment should be optimized.
  Small changes in the existing prevention devices could easily improve their performance or efficiency and as a consequence further reduce the number of spinal cord injuries.
  
  
• • Furthermore Wings for Life will support the development of new protection devices, which will protect the spinal cord in daily life activities. A strong emphasis will be placed on the problem of traffic accidents, since they represent the leading cause of spinal cord injuries. In order to successfully complete this task Wings for Life intends to cooperate with qualified universities and prevention leading companies.

Wings for Life is at the moment the sole spinal cord research foundation working in the field of active prevention.

Dr. Leatt, a South African orthopaedist and casualty surgeon, developed a protector for the cervical vertebrae in cooperation with KTM Sportmotorräder AG, BMW Deutschland and the Trauma Center Murnau (Germany) to safeguard this sensitive area against injuries. Wings for Life supported this project and the Leatt Brace® can now be acquired by anybody willing to practice.

Still allowing full mobility of the head the Leatt Brace® avoids hyperextension and hyperflexion of the cervical spine. These movements which are bending the spine beyond its natural limits can result in a burst fracture. Burst fractures are shattering the bones into small pieces, which are the main reason for injuries of the adjacent cervical spinal cord.

Now the Leatt Brace® is used in different areas of application with a high accident risk and a high risk of spinal cord injury. Cyril Despres (FR), who won the Rallye Dakar two times, is convinced of this neck protector. In his opinion the Leatt Brace® will be part of the basic equipment like a helmet or an airbag.

Besides Despres the Rally-pilot Marc Coma (Winner Rally Paris Dakar 2009) also uses the Leatt Brace to protect his neck.

For further information please visit the official Leatt Brace homepage.