Mechanical bull riding in early childhood: a preventable cause of serious injury

Erin E Ross; Iris Garcia; Melissa Anderson; Ryan Spurrier

doi:10.1136/bcr-2021-245959

Mechanical bull riding in early childhood: a preventable cause of serious injury

BMJ Case Rep. 2022 Jan 17;15(1):e245959. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2021-245959.

Authors

Erin E Ross¹, Iris Garcia^{2

3}, Melissa Anderson⁴, Ryan Spurrier^{5

3}

Affiliations

¹ Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA eeross@usc.edu.
² Injury Prevention Program, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³ Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Trauma Program, Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
⁵ Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Abstract

Our institution saw three cases of moderate to severe injury in children under 7 years of age caused by falls from mechanical bulls at private parties. Injuries sustained included long bone fracture, skull fracture and intracranial haemorrhage. The circumstances of these injuries led our institution's injury prevention team to investigate the safety protocols of local vendors, revealing limited regulation of safety equipment, rider age or height minimums and training for the operation of mechanical bulls. This information was reported to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission in order to reduce instances of these serious injuries in young children.

Keywords: orthopaedic and trauma surgery; paediatrics; trauma.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Accidental Falls / prevention & control
Animals
Cattle
Child
Child, Preschool
Consumer Product Safety
Fractures, Multiple*
Humans
Male
Protective Devices
Retrospective Studies
Skull Fractures*