Doctors treating many snowboarding-related injuries

SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- Snowboarding lands people in the hospital more often than any other winter sport.
Regions Hospital in Saint Paul treated 30 patients for snowboarding injuries in the past year. That's more than twice the rate of any other winter activity. Doctors treated 14 skiing injuries during that same time period.
Doctors say the most common snowboarding injuries are sprained or broken wrists, dislocated shoulders, concussions, and spleen injuries.
"People aren't always great at wearing their helmets which they should," said Regions Hospital Emergency Room Dr. Danielle Jackson. "So people will either take direct hits to the head when they fall or they'll fall and then the snowboard will hit them in the back of the head."
According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, a snowboarder is likely to get hurt every 250 days they spend snowboarding. Health officials are also seeing a rise in serious spinal injuries from snowboarding.
Officials say it's important to wear the corrective gear while snowboarding or doing any outdoor activity. Along with dressing in layers, they recommend wearing wrist guards and a helmet. For more snowboard safety tips, click here.
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Being a snowboarder, this article does not surprise me about snowboarding. Every year riding the mountains around New England, I see many snowboarders being taken down the mountain by ski patrol because they broke or torn something. I thought it was interesting that snowboarding reports more injuries than skiing. People need to be smart when they go snowboaring because it was very easy to hurt yourself.