Heelies warning

[snopes]

Comment: This is a new one to me, it is about those wheelie shoes that are
all the rage with kids these days. It showed up on a e-board. Can you see if
this is true? It is as follows (source was in Algonquin, Illinois):

"...told us this morning about a friend of a friend (who she really seemed
to know as she got teary telling us) who gave the [wheeled] shoes to his
daughter. She was so excited that she slept in them. When she got up, she
forgot she had them on and fell. She is now in a coma."

After some extensive searching, I've come up with nothing about comas in relation to Heelys. While there are reports of fractures to several areas of the body, comments about how the shoes are bad for posture and may cause problems with the spine, and a death misattributed to the shoes, I've found nothing about comas. The closest to it was a concussion a girl sustained after falling backwards and hitting her head on the floor.

I'd think that if a child were to fall into a coma, especially in relation to a fad currently on the market, some kind of news service would pick it up. However, no news source I've found mentions anything about such a coma, including Algonquin's newspaper's website.

It could be possible that it happened too recently to show up in any source, or perhaps it isn't considered newsworthy enough.

[Hans Off]

Ban wheely shoes because child is idiot?
mmmkay

[Not_Done_Living]

The child would have had problems walking if they slipped while wearing them due to the wheel on teh HEEL .. its not UNDER the heel.. its on an angle.

and what parent lets their child wear shoes to sleep?

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Not_Done_Living

...and what parent lets their child wear shoes to sleep?

My parents did not put me to bed with my shoes on, but on more than one occasion (especially if the shoes were new) I'd put them on after being tucked into bed at night. That went for toques, shirts etc.

As for the OP, there is no way that I can see that forgetting about the shoes would mean that the kid ended in a coma. I've tried these shoes, and unless one is moving forward, it is considerably easy to maintain one's balance.

Maybe she was really sleep-heelying?

[Electrotiger]

I work in a science center, and these things are everywhere, especially now after Christmas.

We haven't adopted a no-Heelys rule yet, thought I brought it up to the safety committee that if we don't allow skates or skateboards inside, why should we allow these things? They're taking it to the board.

Just the same, whenever I see a kid making the very distinct posture that means they're rolling, I stop them and tell them that while they're inside, they need to stay on their soles. I'm sure they're back on the wheels as soon as I'm out of eyeshot.

But now I've gotten into the habit of stopping kids, and whenever I see anyone on Heelys outside of work, I have to fight the urge to stop them and tell them to go on their soles.

The other day, I saw a girl wheeling along with her family at a restaurant. I started to say something, then realized, hey, I'm not at work, so I stopped, and just as I was thinking that, she went over, flailing her arms, knocking dad's drink out of his hand, and landed hard on her arse. It was not as funny as it looked, but I can see it happening in the science center somewhere, and someone getting really badly hurt.

I don't think the child would have gone into a coma, how many times have we slipped and fallen when we were kids, whether we were on skateboards, rollerskates or rollerblades or bikes, even tripping over your own untied shoelaces! (that last one would be me hah)

I think the shoes are kind of neat however I think that parents shouldn't allow their children to wheel around in them while they are in certain places such as grocery stores, restaurants etc...just because they could cause alot of damage.

[LittleDuck]

I saw a kid (15-16 ish) at our local WalMart trying to navigate the small and crowded electronics section on a pair of Heelies. I can't believe WalMart (or another store, really) would allow this (chances are no one knew) since it opens up a can of lawsuits. If the kid had run into me, one of us would have been picking themself up off the floor and it would not have been me.

Little "immovable object" Duck

[Brad from Georgia]

Just after Christmas we visited the Georgia Aquarium and I got pretty soundly thumped into by a kid on these things. It made no sense--the place was packed anyway--and here came a kid rolling on his heelies, trying to wend his way through a mass of humanity. Slammed right into me, grabbed hold of some other guy's shirt trying to keep his balance, and failed, falling right on his butt and on someone else's feet.

[Fiver]

I was driving in a parking lot last fall, and from in between the cars, a kid that looked about ten rolled out going pretty quickly (a little bit of a downhill for him). Luckily, I was going pretty slowly, seeing as how it was a parking lot, but when he saw me, he immediatly stopped himself and fell foreward from inertia. I didn't really know how to feel about that, though, because it was pretty funny to watch, and I dislike the shoes anyway, but I don't like the idea of kids getting hurt. Luckily, he just got up and ran back to his mother, looking at me kind of angrily.

[lioness]

While at work, I've had near collisions with kids on those things, especially in the crowed toy section as this was right before Christmas. I'm surprised stores allow people to skate with those on as it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

Children have collided with me while wearing ordinary running shoes, and many other near misses...

I'm suprised that they are allowed to wear anything other than shoes weighted down with lead weights.

The speed and movement of Heleys is much more comparable to walking than it is to skateboarding, or rollerskates.

Someone can stop their forward momentum in Heeleys exactly the same as they can in shoes, and do not generate momentum.

If the wearer is trying to get a running start on those heeleys, than its the running that's the problem, not the heeleys.

There's no problem with people rolling along and walking speed in them.

[Astra]

I didn't realize these things were so popular. Several parents came into the store where I work at looking to buy them (we don't sell them) and lately I've seen lots of kids and teenagers wearing them. Most seem to stay pretty well in control of their movement, but I do worry about some of the little kids who don't quite seem to have the hang of it and who are moving fast.

There's a big warning sticker on the bottom of the shoes that says something to the effect that by removing said sticker you take all responsibility for cracking your head open.

Our house rules are that whenever there is any go-fast stuff strapped to your feet or rear, there's a helmet on your head. That'd go for these shoes as well, and that'll keep the shorties from asking for them

[Johnny Slick]

I wish they made Heelys in size 47.

I bought my kids a pair of the sketchers wheely shoes about 5 years ago, my son was at friends house on a wooden floor & the wheels prematurely came out. He busted his head on the door facing & had a whopper of a knot on his head. My step daughters came out too luckily she just fell on her tush. I took the shoes back after 2 days. They are very dangerous. Maybe the lil girl fell down steps or something to go into a coma.

[Esprise Me]

Originally Posted by UEL

Maybe she was really sleep-heelying?

The first thing that popped into my head was, "how do we know what she was thinking in the instant before she knocked herself into a coma?" It's like that old story about the woman who was having a nightmare, when someone touched her, literally frightening her to death. The problem is that we have no idea what she was dreaming if she never woke up to tell us about it. Likewise, if this girl was asleep with these shoes on, got up, immediately fell down, and has been unconscious ever since, there's no way to know if the reason she fell is because she forgot she had them on.

[HollowMan]

I have had many an occasion to fall asleep with shoes on. I don't know about the rest of you, but I definitely realize as soon as I wake up when I have been wearing shoes all night.

this maybe is irrelevent/pointless... but not so long ago i had never heard of those (magical?) shoes. i was walking around town the one day and there was a small girl walking behind her mam. suddenly, her feet stopped moving and she seemed to glide along the ground. i stopped, and possibly i also stared. she turned in and out, both left and right.

still stopped... i thought... is she a ghost? or am i hallucinating (again)?
it was a memorable day

soon i found out about the shoes. i was a bit disappointed, but i still had my pride

[RingKeeper]

My kids haven't asked for Heelies, in fact my oldest is totally against owning them based solely on the fact that they are the latest fad. She tends to shun such things. Two of her good friends have had accidents with their heelies, one fractured her wrist and the other skinned up both her knees and her cheek when she fell. I don't really see them around as much as I did this time last year.