Splintered floorboards make for a pain in the backside.
As a participant in his team's "blocks and charges" practice drill, a Croton (N.Y.) Harmon High junior varsity player was fully prepared to land on his backside a few times. But the 15-year-old freshman didn't expect to fall to the gym floor and have a seven-inch splinter partially lodge in his buttocks.
According to The Journal News of Westchester County, on Feb. 10 the player fell backward during the Saturday-morning drill, "then slid on his backside while a splintered piece of the floor dug into his body."
Because the gym floor is only about a year old, Croton-Harmon School District superintendent Marjorie Castro was just as surprised by the incident as the injured player. With subsequent inspections by flooring experts pending, Castro told The Journal News that the loose splinter appeared to be along a joint.
About 20 firefighters and other emergency workers attended to the player, whom Castro declined to identify. Because of a Croton fire department policy that restricts first responders from removing objects piercing the skin, firefighters spent more than an hour cutting out the offending floorboard before the teen could be transported to a local hospital.
Even though the splinter dug four inches into his body, the player reportedly did not require stitches, but was given antibiotics. He returned to school the following Monday. "Everybody did the right thing, from the coaches to the parents to the town's emergency workers," Castro said. "Thank heavens he is okay."
