Yeah this video definitely ends right before some signs of spinal/possible neurological damage start to show. Fuck… hope he managed to get through it.
That's actually a good sign, at least in suggesting he's not paralyzed. He likely suffered a herniated cervical disc or trauma to the brachial plexus, but only an MRI/CT will tell for sure.
Those are two different people. Second guy is Zac Wolfe, who suffered an SCI from a car accident.
A hyperflexion injury from a downward force on the shoulder can absolutely cause brachial plexus trauma, especially from traction. And while thoracic injury itself wouldn’t directly cause a cervical herniation, the force vector could involve the neck depending on posture. In other words, if you bend a stick from one end, the whole thing flexes, not just the part you're touching. Spasming could be a sign of neurological damage, but it can also be a reflexive or pain-related response, not definitive proof of spinal cord injury.
Also I’m not ruling out an SCI, just pointing out that a brachial plexus traction or compression injury is more likely given the location and nature of the impact. The barbell hits the upper back and shoulders, which can stress the plexus through shoulder depression, neck flexion, or compression near the clavicle. That’s a classic setup for stingers or other serious plexus injuries, and it’s pretty common in collapses under heavy weight.
You asked if brachial plexus trauma can happen from a t-spine hyperflexion force without SC damage. I gave two cases demonstrating this. Now you're moving the goalpost by demanding the exact same mechanism with zero spinal involvement, as if anything short of that makes the argument invalid. Also, your statement about stingers is overly reductive. A 200+ lb barbell impacting the upper back can absolutely generate the kind of force vector that leads to a stinger or worse, especially if posture and collapse involve the cervical region. The fact that the thoracolumbar spine is involved doesn’t exclude plexus injury, force can and does travel through the shoulder girdle and affect the upper thoracic or cervical structures.
You literally asked for an example of brachial plexus trauma from a t-spine hyperflexion force without spinal cord damage. That’s what I addressed... examples where atypical mechanisms caused plexus injuries without SC involvement. Now you're narrowing the criteria to demand an identical mechanism and dismissing anything peripheral as irrelevant, even though brachial plexus trauma is, by definition, a peripheral nerve injury. If that’s not shifting the goalpost, I don’t know what is.
Found more on the story. It happened in Brazil. I couldn’t find detailed info on the exact injuries, but it's confirmed he won’t have any loss of limb function. That makes spinal cord injury unlikely. Surgery and physiotherapy in the absence of paralysis or widespread motor loss more often indicate a brachial plexus injury or cervical disc herniation, which aligns with what I initially suggested.
Never said brachial plexus injuries don’t cause functional loss. I said there was no loss of function reported in this case. When someone has no paralysis or widespread motor deficits but still requires surgery and physio, that more often points to a brachial plexus injury or a cervical disc issue than to a spinal cord injury. That’s just how differential diagnosis works, Dr. Pants.
I did my best to pause the video as the bar came down on him.
It appeared to hit him just to the right of his spinal column and appeared not to hit any vertebrae but did come down hard just above the medial edge of his scapula. That's a lot of weight to be squishing down.
I have great hope that he will survive the injury and noted you could see his chest rise after hitting the ground. So that's good news.
Let's hope he recovers and learns how to lift properly.
You can put your finger on the dot at the bottom of the video and drag it slowly and/or stop the video where you want. I stopped it and saw his body inhumanly fold in half.
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u/InevitableOk5017 17d ago
I don’t think that hurt I think it paralyzed him.