On Friday night, David Goldberg — chief executive of SurveyMonkey and husband of Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg — died while holidaying in Mexico with his family.
The 47-year-old, who married Lean In author Sandberg in 2004, was using a treadmill in a Four Seasons Resort gym when he collapsed. According to a Mexican government official, it appeared Goldberg “fell off the treadmill and cracked his head open”.
The New York Times reports Goldberg was found lying on the gym floor surrounded by blood at around 7pm, three hours after he originally left his room, by his brother Robert.
The father of two was rushed to hospital with weak vital signs, but eventually died of severe head trauma and hypovolaemic shock, i.e. blood loss. A private memorial is being held for Goldberg in the Silicone Valley today.
Treadmill injuries
The cause of David Goldberg's collapse is currently unknown. Yet treadmill injuries, whether in a gym or home environment, aren't a rare occurrence.
A report by the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit (VISU) found that between January 2006 and December 2012, there were 748 treadmill-related presentations in emergency departments in Victoria. This averaged out to 107 per year, with more than half of the patients being younger than 14.
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In New South Wales, 40 people — most of them children — are hospitalised every year for treadmill-related injuries, according to a 2013 statement from Fair Trading NSW.
It's not hard to see why treadmills pose injury risks; the moving conveyor belts, hard edges and adjustable speeds can be unforgiving, particularly if a user loses balance, doesn't match the speed of the belt, or is momentarily distracted. This can result in an array of injuries ranging from bruises, cuts and sprains to friction burns and broken bones. One case study in the VISU report presented with a tooth through their lip after falling from their treadmill. Ouch.