Rick Bahr talks about the Leatt Neck Brace.

Apr 08, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5418 times

Rick Bahr is a familiar face on the BMX circuit and it's always good to have him around because when he's on the infield, you know you're in good hands. But you, as a rider, can prevent injuries as well be wearing the correct protection gear. Leatt caught up with Rick and had an interesting talk:
"After 30 years in the Emergency Medicine and Sports Medicine field specifically with high profile televised events including the Olympics and many World Championships and World Cups; I make my living traveling the world, setting up, organizing, and Directing many of the largest action sports and racing medical and rescue operations on the planet. I know how mechanism of injury or a particular crash how it takes place and can leave devastating life-long permanent injury or death on an athlete despite our efforts and preparation to reduce or mitigate that risk for the athlete. The frustration as a medical professional in these situations is paramount as we prepare for the worse and hope for the best but sometimes there is nothing we can do despite all our

efforts. Along comes the Leatt Brace…

Like myself, Dr. Leatt lost someone close to him one day; as his friend lay there and despite Dr. Leatt’s efforts, there was nothing he could do at the time. Dr. Leatt proceeded to create the Leatt Neck Brace to mitigate or hopefully eliminate Neck injury as an issue for those who love to do the sport they love. I stand witness to this that the Leatt Brace works! Not only does it eliminate many types of mechanisms of neck injury, it allows athlete and weekend warriors full recovery without permanent disability and as I have witnessed likely death based on other similar situations!

It has become my mission to spread this word globally in hopes that many will take note and begin using the Leatt Brace as a common necessary piece of equipment in conjunction with a helmet. With the Leatt Brace and the Helmet many life debilitating injuries will be avoided and in many cases even death can be avoided. I have seen firsthand during our events the benefits of this brace and they are far too numerous to count or to site a specific incident. If you are looking for specifics as a medical professional I can only give you generalities but one of my riders recently during an Olympic Year had a serious crash that not only rendered the athlete unconscious and in a severe life threatening condition but the athlete had multiple issues we had to deal with to sustain life. One issue however, even to my surprise was there was absolutely no neck injury, not even a sprain! This was the first time I saw the Leatt Brace destroyed on impact due to the magnitude of the mechanism which would have most certainly fractured the athlete’s neck with a high probability of spinal cord injury. The Leatt Brace did is job, it took the full force of the impact and disbursed the energy to other non-vital areas of the body that we could fix and deal with. In the end, not only did the athlete survive a life threatening and/or highly probable permanent disability, the athlete went on to compete in the Olympics only 6 months later!

I cannot say enough about this brace; the above is only one of countless examples I can provide. I already highly recommend the brace at our Action Sports and Racing events and would highly recommend it to the consumer as a vital and necessary piece of equipment to worn each time you ride whether for recreation or competition. Many accidents happen during recreation; you do not have to be a professional to wear this brace, it’s made for all.