Feet first first time helps keep you alive

Actress remembers breaking neck in her own pool.
By LISA ROBERTS
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Actress Brooke Burns often swims at night in her backyard pool. The night last November was no different. She remembers standing on the side and thinking: "I'll just cruise in at about three feet." When she dove in, she misjudged the depth of the black-bottomed pool by about six inches. The impact broke her neck.
"I blacked out in the water. ... I saw the big white light and felt my body floating," says the 28-year-old, who stars as Kathy in TV's "Pepper Dennis" on the WB. Luckily a friend -- a former firefighter -- was with her. He wrapped a towel around her neck and floated her face-up in the pool until paramedics arrived. After more than 10 hours of surgery and extensive rehabilitation, she has recovered.
Survival rate
Burns is among the lucky. Of the roughly 1,000 annual spinal injuries caused by diving accidents, 90 percent result in paralysis, according to the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation and the North American Spine Society. Most of the injuries occurred in water less than 6 feet deep.
Eleven feet is the recommended depth for diving, with 9 feet the minimum, says Kelli Jenkens, a project manager for ThinkFirst in La Grange, Ill. Factors such as a person's height and the spot from which they dive also come into play when determining a safe depth.
Right attitude
The best rule of thumb is this: "Feet First First Time" -- before diving, go in feet first to find out how deep the water is, Jenkens says.
Most diving accidents occur in lakes, rivers, oceans and other natural bodies of water, rather than pools, according to ThinkFirst. Even if you're familiar with a spot, depths can change, sometimes bringing debris and other objects closer to the surface.
Orlando, Fla., resident Tim Morgan, 48, has been a quadriplegic since 1977, when, as a Disney World lifeguard, he dove into 4 feet of water in a manmade lagoon during the search for a missing girl and hit a submerged dock pylon. The water, usually from eight to 10 feet deep, had been lowered by a drought, Morgan says.