The moment he knew

Well let’s see.

He looks about 115kg and let’s say that height is about 1.5 meters.

His velocity at time of splat is: sqrt(2 x 9.8m/s2 x 1.5m) = 5.42m/s

The energy of splat is: 1/2 x 115kg x 5.42m/s2 = 115kg x 9.8m/s2 x 1.5m which works out to 1690.50 joules.

1690.50/1.5m = 1127 Newtons of force at splat time.

Studies have shown it takes 3000-4500 Newtons of force to fracture a vertebrae, depending on the direction the force is applied. Therefore he probably didn’t fracture his spine. However, this amount of force could still potentially be enough to to damage a lot of the soft tissue surrounding the spine, which can take a very long time to heal. Think of something like a sprained ankle, except in his lower back. This kind of injury can also result in some pretty severe muscle spasm which will hurt him for quite a while.

tl;dr: Probably not permanent, but he’s going to be feeling it for a few weeks.

/r/instant_regret Thread Parent Link - gfycat.com