Paralympic athletes who harm themselves to perform better

[ariadneoliver]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19325756

This will be covered in a documentary on the World Service this evening, but the article does give some grim details not for the squeamish.

I read this earlier. A bit speachless.

I'm thinking that their spinal injuries mean that they don't feel pain when they break their toes or strangulate their testicles??!!!

Blimey. Crazy!

Crazy? It's bloody cheating!

I agree. It's both.

My mother is paraplegic and has has autonomic dysreflexia on two occasions - caused by infection / accidental injury not self inflicted. When she was in spinal rehab it was stressed how dangerous it was (potentially fatal) and she now carries medication and a medical alert card at all times.

The even scarier thing is that few medical staff have ever heard of the condition. Only medics at spinal units seem aware of it, so if we take my mother to A&E with suspected AD we also have to take notes from the spinal unit explaining what it is.

Hopefully this article will a) stop this happening at London 2012 and b) raise awareness among medics of AD