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I just broke my leg!
- Thread starter R.Youden
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Just a question about hospitals. If you have a laptop, do they allow you to use the internet? I doubt they allow wireless in the UK since you're not even allowed to use a mobile indoors in the hospitals I worked in (Great Ormond, Univ College Hospital of North Durham, and another one that I forget), but maybe over ethernet?
Well, it sounds like you don't mind this "sue anyone" culture so much. I'd chalk up this sort of accident to bad luck. Yes yes, slippery metal grate placed in a high-friction area isn't a great idea, but still....
I imagine that if they had a wireless reception you could use it. I had a quick look but didnt find one. I imagine that some private hospitals have wireless but not the good old NHS.
What I dont like about the "sue culture" is when people claim, for example, if they fall off a ladder at work and they are not wearing safety equipment even though the company provided it. In this case at least two people have slipped on that cover before me but the council dont think it is a good idea to do anything about. Also there is every chance that I will loose a large amount of money because of this. I have just paid over £3000 tuition fees which I will loose if I can not carry on at university, even if I do I doubt I will get such a good mark but incidents like this are not taken into concideration so it will look bad on me in the long run. Also I wont be able to earn any money for the next 2 months at least to help pay for my flat which isnt cheap! So because of the negligence of Bristol council and their lack of positive actions to remove a known danger I will be left very much out of pocket, is that fair?
Ok fair enough. I just don't like the "Well if you sue, you'd win!" mentality. Just because you can sue, doesn't mean you need to. If you sue and get back what you potentially lost, then fair enough.
Did you dislocate your ankle at the same time?
I did the same thing to my leg/ankle but I disclocated it the ankle at the same time and had to get plates put in the tibia and fibia as well and an ankle reconstruction.
You were lucky to be in a street, I did mine at the bottom of a slot canyon in the Blue Mountains at Blackheath. It was raining and I just slipped on a flat wet rock, you can hear when it breaks.
I was stuck at the bottom of this canyon for 4 hours in the rain while someone who was walking past went for help. They sent a helicopter. They had to drop the doctor and rescue guys further down the canyon, they walked to me while the helicopter went back to the hospital and refueled.
They gave me some morphine, straightened it up and splinted it well (that hurt a bit) and got me to walk down this canyon to where it was wide enough that they could get a helicopter in. They had to manouver the helicopter under high tension powers cables which were above the canyon. They couldn't use a stretcher to winch me out because they blow around to much and there were tree branches breaking off and flying all around so they just used the round harness which just goes under your arm pits (keep your arms down other wise you'd just slip through) to winch me up into the helicopter.
It was a pretty daring rescue it was in all the papers because it was so dangerous.
Then I got a mad helicopter ride through the Blue Mountains to the hospital at Penrith, off my face on morphine. That bit was cool as.
At least I didn't have to wait a week for it to be operated on they did the operation that night.
The best thing about the scar is that because it's really low on the leg you can see and feel all the bolts in my ankle through the skin. Chicks did it.
I did the same thing to my leg/ankle but I disclocated it the ankle at the same time and had to get plates put in the tibia and fibia as well and an ankle reconstruction.
You were lucky to be in a street, I did mine at the bottom of a slot canyon in the Blue Mountains at Blackheath. It was raining and I just slipped on a flat wet rock, you can hear when it breaks.
I was stuck at the bottom of this canyon for 4 hours in the rain while someone who was walking past went for help. They sent a helicopter. They had to drop the doctor and rescue guys further down the canyon, they walked to me while the helicopter went back to the hospital and refueled.
They gave me some morphine, straightened it up and splinted it well (that hurt a bit) and got me to walk down this canyon to where it was wide enough that they could get a helicopter in. They had to manouver the helicopter under high tension powers cables which were above the canyon. They couldn't use a stretcher to winch me out because they blow around to much and there were tree branches breaking off and flying all around so they just used the round harness which just goes under your arm pits (keep your arms down other wise you'd just slip through) to winch me up into the helicopter.
It was a pretty daring rescue it was in all the papers because it was so dangerous.
Then I got a mad helicopter ride through the Blue Mountains to the hospital at Penrith, off my face on morphine. That bit was cool as.
At least I didn't have to wait a week for it to be operated on they did the operation that night.
The best thing about the scar is that because it's really low on the leg you can see and feel all the bolts in my ankle through the skin. Chicks did it.
Just to bring back an old thread.
Well I have finally been discharged from the consultant and physio and things appear to be healing well. They have decided to leave the metal plate in my leg as the operation to take it out is a more complex than the one to put the dam thing in there!
I have started to play golf again which is good and even managed to get my handicap cut (only by 0.3) but my Club Championship is next week and I am after my 4th title so hopefully I can do well.
I have also just been for my first proper run in nearly 8 months and I was quite please with about 2.5 miles in 20 minutes.
Once again, thanks for all your support on here.
Well I have finally been discharged from the consultant and physio and things appear to be healing well. They have decided to leave the metal plate in my leg as the operation to take it out is a more complex than the one to put the dam thing in there!
I have started to play golf again which is good and even managed to get my handicap cut (only by 0.3) but my Club Championship is next week and I am after my 4th title so hopefully I can do well.
I have also just been for my first proper run in nearly 8 months and I was quite please with about 2.5 miles in 20 minutes.
Once again, thanks for all your support on here.
Congrats, glad to hear it is healing nicely. You put me to shame both on the golf front and the running front, think i would be sick if i had to run 2.5 miles let alone in 20 minutes.
Sorry to be a pedant but this is getting on my nerves - it's a fibula!
Very surprised that you got triaged as a non-urgent case. With any broken bone there is a significant amount of pain (good enough reason to get urgent attention and some opiates on board) plus there's the risk of vascular damage. Waiting a week for the op seems pretty tough, although emergency lists are normally full of little old ladies with fractured NOFs and road traffic accidents.
I'm not at all sue happy but you might have a case here, although there should be no reason why you can't continue university - I'm sure that under disability legislation they are obliged to ensure that you can attend. Loss of income (albeit potential is a big deal) but you'd probably be required to prove that you had something in the pipeline. Am also a little surprised that something quite so benign could cause such a nasty fracture, almost sounds pathological. Although any apparent weakness in the bones should show up in the X-rays that you've had.
Good luck for a speedy recovery.
Very surprised that you got triaged as a non-urgent case. With any broken bone there is a significant amount of pain (good enough reason to get urgent attention and some opiates on board) plus there's the risk of vascular damage. Waiting a week for the op seems pretty tough, although emergency lists are normally full of little old ladies with fractured NOFs and road traffic accidents.
I'm not at all sue happy but you might have a case here, although there should be no reason why you can't continue university - I'm sure that under disability legislation they are obliged to ensure that you can attend. Loss of income (albeit potential is a big deal) but you'd probably be required to prove that you had something in the pipeline. Am also a little surprised that something quite so benign could cause such a nasty fracture, almost sounds pathological. Although any apparent weakness in the bones should show up in the X-rays that you've had.
Good luck for a speedy recovery.
The reason they took a week to operate was that they wanted the senior consultant to carry out the operation as my leg was a complex leg! I didn't mind too much as I knew I was getting it done by the top bloke rather than someone (whom I am sure is very competent) who is not 100% confident.
I agree that it was a concern that the leg broke with such a relatively mild accident however I was bitten on that leg years ago by a dog and that may have had a bearing on it as the fracture was in the exact same place as the scare from the dog bite. They did say it was the worst non-sport fracture they have seen.
I agree that it was a concern that the leg broke with such a relatively mild accident however I was bitten on that leg years ago by a dog and that may have had a bearing on it as the fracture was in the exact same place as the scare from the dog bite. They did say it was the worst non-sport fracture they have seen.
They said that on the x-ray (I didn't see it myself) there was a small indentation in the bone that wasn't due to the main fracture and was something older that had weakened the bone possibly so and the dog bite I had was a pretty bad one so we put the two together.
@R.Youden
I got halfway though the thread before I realised it was resurrected. I was going to laugh at the 3 month healing time. That's what they told me when I had a comminuted tib/fib, it was 6 months before I could put any weight (24 months to feel OK) on it and even though my ankle was not damaged at all, I have lost a lot of movement in it.
I was lucky to be hit by a nurse outside a hospital, (yeah lucky, right) so she ran inside to get some morphine. I was on the operating table within an hour and woke up with a nail down the inside of my tibia with two screws holding it in place. Never heard of a spiral fracture before but looking it up it appears similar to a comminuted fracture where the bones are in little pieces around the break.
I'm wondering why a plate rather than a nail? Do you have any x rays you can post?
Wow that's an amazingly dramatic story, I bushwalk down the Grand Canyon at Blackheath regularly.
I presume you meant "dig it". What do they say, 'is that a bolt in your leg or are you just pleased to see me'?
I got halfway though the thread before I realised it was resurrected. I was going to laugh at the 3 month healing time. That's what they told me when I had a comminuted tib/fib, it was 6 months before I could put any weight (24 months to feel OK) on it and even though my ankle was not damaged at all, I have lost a lot of movement in it.
I was lucky to be hit by a nurse outside a hospital, (yeah lucky, right) so she ran inside to get some morphine. I was on the operating table within an hour and woke up with a nail down the inside of my tibia with two screws holding it in place. Never heard of a spiral fracture before but looking it up it appears similar to a comminuted fracture where the bones are in little pieces around the break.
I'm wondering why a plate rather than a nail? Do you have any x rays you can post?
Wow that's an amazingly dramatic story, I bushwalk down the Grand Canyon at Blackheath regularly.
I presume you meant "dig it". What do they say, 'is that a bolt in your leg or are you just pleased to see me'?
Some pictures from the accident:
Those bricks with bumps on them are not intended to be a high friction surface. They are to provide a tactile guide for blind people to show them safe places to cross the road. If anything I think they are a low friction surface because your foot doesn't have as much contact area with the ground.
I hope your recovery continues and you have no problems in the future.
Whereabouts in Bristol was this? A total guess is that it looks like "promotions corner" outside Senate House on Tyndall Avenue. This corner is so called because its a dangerous place to cross and young academics can get a promotion when the old professors get knocked over trying to cross the road!
They wanted to put a rod down the centre of my bone but it was quite narrow and they didn't want to drill the bone out to get the rod through.
I still get some discomfort form it and it gets sore but nothing too bad. I can't sprint on it but jogging and running for a few minutes is OK. They worst bit is trying to build up the strength in your muscles as they haven't been used for so long they fade away, as I am sure you found out.
With the rod, did they leave it in or remove it?
I still get some discomfort form it and it gets sore but nothing too bad. I can't sprint on it but jogging and running for a few minutes is OK. They worst bit is trying to build up the strength in your muscles as they haven't been used for so long they fade away, as I am sure you found out.
With the rod, did they leave it in or remove it?
@R.Youden
Hmm, tibias are narrow and bent but they should have been able to do it. I thought they just push the marrow out of the way but I'm not sure. You might feel a lot better when I tell you that expected full recovery time is about 3 years, so you are doing really well. And it does take a long while to get the wasted muscle back.
One screw near the knee and one at the ankle. It was weird waking up with only a back slab on my leg and it was all gooey where the break was. The bottom screw came out after 6 months to allow the bone to sense weight so it could lay down more bone. So the nail just hangs suspended from the top screw.
Mind you it was impinging on my knee joint so they had to open it up again after a week and hammer it down another few millimetres. The rod came out after 18 months. And the fibula ended up bonding with the tibia.
What really p155es me off is that footballers like Djibril Cisse can break their leg badly and be playing pro football in 18 months. So I'm always suspicious when doctors say they've done their best. I guess they have to practice on someone. But I'm grateful they saved my leg as I bet you are too.
Hmm, tibias are narrow and bent but they should have been able to do it. I thought they just push the marrow out of the way but I'm not sure. You might feel a lot better when I tell you that expected full recovery time is about 3 years, so you are doing really well. And it does take a long while to get the wasted muscle back.
One screw near the knee and one at the ankle. It was weird waking up with only a back slab on my leg and it was all gooey where the break was. The bottom screw came out after 6 months to allow the bone to sense weight so it could lay down more bone. So the nail just hangs suspended from the top screw.
Mind you it was impinging on my knee joint so they had to open it up again after a week and hammer it down another few millimetres. The rod came out after 18 months. And the fibula ended up bonding with the tibia.
What really p155es me off is that footballers like Djibril Cisse can break their leg badly and be playing pro football in 18 months. So I'm always suspicious when doctors say they've done their best. I guess they have to practice on someone. But I'm grateful they saved my leg as I bet you are too.
Settlement, no a penny.
It is very true what you say about footballers and pro athletes but they do get very specialised training with private medical insurance through the club etc. I suppose if my income depended upon it then I too would have gone private.
When you consider that it took me 4 weeks to get physio due to a waiting list and then another 5 weeks to change physio onto more active training you can see the delay. Also I had physio maybe once every two weeks, they athletes will be having it all day every day.
I do wonder if they will suffer later in life after being pushed through so quick. What will their legs be like when they are in their 40's?
It is very true what you say about footballers and pro athletes but they do get very specialised training with private medical insurance through the club etc. I suppose if my income depended upon it then I too would have gone private.
When you consider that it took me 4 weeks to get physio due to a waiting list and then another 5 weeks to change physio onto more active training you can see the delay. Also I had physio maybe once every two weeks, they athletes will be having it all day every day.
I do wonder if they will suffer later in life after being pushed through so quick. What will their legs be like when they are in their 40's?
@R.Youden
A break will generally be stronger than the rest of the bone due to the extra bone laid down. As you say it's really all down to the physio rather than the op. Probably really requires intensive physio every day for months. More than likely it's too late now. I had the top surgeons in OZ working on me but crap post op physio. But 20 years ago and we'd both be in a real mess.
What will their legs be like when they are in their 40's?
At a guess I'd say perfect.
A break will generally be stronger than the rest of the bone due to the extra bone laid down. As you say it's really all down to the physio rather than the op. Probably really requires intensive physio every day for months. More than likely it's too late now. I had the top surgeons in OZ working on me but crap post op physio. But 20 years ago and we'd both be in a real mess.
What will their legs be like when they are in their 40's?
At a guess I'd say perfect.
They are willing to take a serious buttload of pain during rehab in order to come back quicker.
And the serious cash does make one more willing to spend a lot of time torturing their body.
That's kinda misleading isn't it? "wouldn't it be funny if we mislead blind people into thinking they were safe, when in fact they're standing on top of an incredibly slippery grate?!", no not really.
I was surprised you didn't get run over there, isn't the traffic there usually quite bad?
