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Bad break


Scully
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A former workmate for the company I worked for building and erecting buildings was up on Islay earlier this month erecting a property they’d built prior to lockdown. They’d all been furloughed and this was their first week back at work. 
Apparently a beam broke free ( of what I don’t know and nothing he was responsible for ) resulting in him breaking his leg in two places. He was air lifted to a hospital in Glasgow. 
He sent me some post op’ pics and an x-ray pic and they look horrendous! Deep surgical cuts stapled up and multiple surgical screws through both his leg and ankle bones, with multi-coloured bruising. Horrific! He told me he will be off work for months. 
On stating that I assumed he must have been in a great amount of pain,  he told me that surprisingly there was no pain at all. 
Luckily I’ve never had anything worse than a torn ligament ( touch wood 🙂 ) which was painful enough, and I’ve heard of frail old dears walking to an ambulance with a broken hip, but I’ve never heard of a fit, relatively young strong man or woman feeling no pain from such an awful injury. Why would that be? Shock? Adrenalin? 

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3 minutes ago, Scully said:

A former workmate for the company I worked for building and erecting buildings was up on Islay earlier this month erecting a property they’d built prior to lockdown. They’d all been furloughed and this was their first week back at work. 
Apparently a beam broke free ( of what I don’t know and nothing he was responsible for ) resulting in him breaking his leg in two places. He was air lifted to a hospital in Glasgow. 
He sent me some post op’ pics and an x-ray pic and they look horrendous! Deep surgical cuts stapled up and multiple surgical screws through both his leg and ankle bones, with multi-coloured bruising. Horrific! He told me he will be off work for months. 
On stating that I assumed he must have been in a great amount of pain,  he told me that surprisingly there was no pain at all. 
Luckily I’ve never had anything worse than a torn ligament ( touch wood 🙂 ) which was painful enough, and I’ve heard of frail old dears walking to an ambulance with a broken hip, but I’ve never heard of a fit, relatively young strong man or woman feeling no pain from such an awful injury. Why would that be? Shock? Adrenalin? 

you mean at the incident, or in the hospital later? Shock and adrenalin do plenty to stop the body realising the full trauma, for sure. if the latter, then it'll be the shed load of high powered painkillers. My friend was in a pretty dreadful car accident many years ago. double leg break, including the femur and various spinal injuries to boot. When he was in hospital and on medication he didn't feel the pain at all...but then he also thought he was the king of Scotland too.

sounds horrific though. good thing he came away with his life! is he expected to make a full recovery?

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12 minutes ago, chrisjpainter said:

you mean at the incident, or in the hospital later? Shock and adrenalin do plenty to stop the body realising the full trauma, for sure. if the latter, then it'll be the shed load of high powered painkillers. My friend was in a pretty dreadful car accident many years ago. double leg break, including the femur and various spinal injuries to boot. When he was in hospital and on medication he didn't feel the pain at all...but then he also thought he was the king of Scotland too.

sounds horrific though. good thing he came away with his life! is he expected to make a full recovery?

At the scene as far as I know. And again, as far as I know,  he is expected to make a full recovery. 

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When I broke my leg I stood up and walked on it a few strides to confirm it was broken then sat down and calmly asked for the doctor and ambulance. I refused to let them cut my boot off and took it off myself and offered to walk into the ambulance when they couldn't put the stretcher together. I didn't use gas and air or have any pain relief all the way to hospital and was directing the driver the fastest way to hospital because of traffic lights and road works. And flirting with the girl paramedic of course! The worst bit was when the plaster nurse who thought he was a comedian and the bad tempered consultant couldn't agree how to straighten the fracture so did both their ideas at the same time! I'd had morphine by that point but it was excruciating. That was the Sunday, post op on the Wednesday after they'd hammered a 2ft long metal rod down the inside of my shin bone and screwed it all together was a pretty abysmal day too. All in I spent a week in hospital, 2 weeks no weight bearing and another 4 with crutches. And 5 months 18 days before I could return to full work. I got married 3 weeks after breaking my leg and was back riding 6 weeks after breaking it. All in all it was the most painful thing I've ever broken. 

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1 hour ago, MirokuMK70 said:

I think its quite common that wounded soldiers don't initially feel much pain due to shock and adrenaline and often carry on fighting despite very serious wounds.

I was going to say the same thing.  I know people who have been wounded whilst in Iraq and Afghanistan and some of those say they didnt feel it, at least until they noticed the injury.

One chap I know was at one of the big bases in Afghanistan (I cant remember which) when the Taliban fired a rocket into the area where he was working.  It landed in or near the ops tent he was in and he says he remembers a whooshing noise and the pressure of the blast but that's it.

He dragged another guy with leg wounds outside which caused him to get a fair amount of blood on him.  This meant that until someone noticed a tear in my friends trousers, nobody (including him) had noticed that a fragment had torn his scrotum open, leaving his testicles exposed.

He said that pain kicked in pretty soon after that but he was sedated very quickly.

He made a full physical recovery and had a daughter with his wife afterwards, although we all used to rib him saying that the kid would speak Russian.  Sadly though he struggles with the mental impact still.

 

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2 hours ago, Scully said:

.....  was up on Islay earlier this month .....  On stating that I assumed he must have been in a great amount of pain,  he told me that surprisingly there was no pain at all. 

Maybe the folk in Islay had administered some of those very effective anaesthetics that are manufactured on the island.

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2 hours ago, Scully said:

A former workmate for the company I worked for building and erecting buildings was up on Islay earlier this month erecting a property they’d built prior to lockdown. They’d all been furloughed and this was their first week back at work. 
Apparently a beam broke free ( of what I don’t know and nothing he was responsible for ) resulting in him breaking his leg in two places. He was air lifted to a hospital in Glasgow. 
He sent me some post op’ pics and an x-ray pic and they look horrendous! Deep surgical cuts stapled up and multiple surgical screws through both his leg and ankle bones, with multi-coloured bruising. Horrific! He told me he will be off work for months. 
On stating that I assumed he must have been in a great amount of pain,  he told me that surprisingly there was no pain at all. 
Luckily I’ve never had anything worse than a torn ligament ( touch wood 🙂 ) which was painful enough, and I’ve heard of frail old dears walking to an ambulance with a broken hip, but I’ve never heard of a fit, relatively young strong man or woman feeling no pain from such an awful injury. Why would that be? Shock? Adrenalin? 

It could be shock, raised adrenaline levels affect pain, they take 'your mind off the pain' in a sense. Bone pain is signalled by nociceptors that originate from both deep in the bone marrow and the periosteum the outer fine layer of connective tissue surrounding the bone. By your report it sound like a 'comminuted' fracture (multi pieces) the fracture may have had some stability to it without him weight bearing onto the injury so no grating of the bone and marrow so decreased initial nociceptor response. People try to weight bear when they sustain a fracture and soon quickly sit down and the 'I knew something was not good' remark is heard. Some unstable fractures reduce blood flow this can result in a neurovascular deficit, reduced pain, reduced sensation and motor response. A cool  dusky coloured limb with decreased capillary refil is a concern. Trauma can also result in bleeding into the muscle (compartment syndrome) large muscle trauma can also result in release of myglobin protein from the muscle trauma and result in rhabdomyolisis in which the kidney cannot excrete the  excess protien and can result in damage to the kidney. Passing muddy/brown orange wee with abdominal pain are cardinal symptoms. 

I can foresee he has a bit of a road ahead of him and wish him all the best. Tramadol, orimorph, paracetamol and ibuprofen are your friends in these unfortunate situations.

9 minutes ago, McSpredder said:

 

Maybe the folk in Islay had administered some of those very effective anaesthetics that are manufactured on the island.

I once heard someone comment after a trauma that they felt no pain and it was probably a result of the 'White Bolivian Marching Powder' that they had 'snorted' a few short hours before.

Edited by 7daysinaweek
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2 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

The worst bit was when the plaster nurse who thought he was a comedian and the bad tempered consultant couldn't agree how to straighten the fracture so did both their ideas at the same time! I'd had morphine by that point but it was excruciating. That was the Sunday, post op on the Wednesday after they'd hammered a 2ft long metal rod down the inside of my shin bone and screwed it all together was a pretty abysmal day too. 

Eek 🤢🤮.

Team tractor will be along later with one his own horror stories...

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1 hour ago, 7daysinaweek said:

It could be shock, raised adrenaline levels affect pain, they take 'your mind off the pain' in a sense. Bone pain is signalled by nociceptors that originate from both deep in the bone marrow and the periosteum the outer fine layer of connective tissue surrounding the bone. By your report it sound like a 'comminuted' fracture (multi pieces) the fracture may have had some stability to it without him weight bearing onto the injury so no grating of the bone and marrow so decreased initial nociceptor response. People try to weight bear when they sustain a fracture and soon quickly sit down and the 'I knew something was not good' remark is heard. Some unstable fractures reduce blood flow this can result in a neurovascular deficit, reduced pain, reduced sensation and motor response. A cool  dusky coloured limb with decreased capillary refil is a concern. Trauma can also result in bleeding into the muscle (compartment syndrome) large muscle trauma can also result in release of myglobin protein from the muscle trauma and result in rhabdomyolisis in which the kidney cannot excrete the  excess protien and can result in damage to the kidney. Passing muddy/brown orange wee with abdominal pain are cardinal symptoms. 

I can foresee he has a bit of a road ahead of him and wish him all the best. Tramadol, orimorph, paracetamol and ibuprofen are your friends in these unfortunate situations.

I once heard someone comment after a trauma that they felt no pain and it was probably a result of the 'White Bolivian Marching Powder' that they had 'snorted' a few short hours before.

Cheers. Interesting stuff. 👍

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I deal with a fair bit of trauma at work, some it major. We have had people with pelvic and spinal fractures, perforated bowel and torn spleen who lay there and barely made a noise and people with a broken finger who have screamed like a stuck pig. But generally those with tib/fib or femoral fractures are in a good amount of pain as the muscles contract and pull the bones all over the place, although no pain is unusual Adrenaline can do amazing things!

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2 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

😂 He's more mental than man. 

Although it shouldn't be possible I set the alarms off going into asda I. Shrewsbury every time I walk in and do the same at Cambers. 

Thats better, 👍

 

I've been very lucky, only had a chipped elbow and compound fractures to metacarpals. 

Hope your mate is soon comfortable. 

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Had something similar to your mate happen to me but I caught 450mm 250mm X 6mtr beam with my head instead. Fractured skull, compressed spine, 4 dislocated ribs, multiple bruised organs, fractured pelvis and dislocated hip, Tibia and Fibula both sticking out of lower leg and jeans. Pulled myself clear of wreckage to make access easier for paramedics got my breath back from being winded then calmly assessed the damage, called the forklift driver some names and then sat patiently waiting for the emergency services. No pain for nearly 45-50 mins but when the shock wore off didn't I know about it. Should've killed me and would've definitely killed the young lad working with me had I not pushed him clear. Weird experience,  what your eyes are telling you is that you're badly injured and your life's on a knife edge but your body and brain do something to keep you functioning, get out get safe get help keep calm stop the blood keep breathing and the one thing I kept repeating was Don't let me fall asleep. Shock is a both a killer and a lifesaver.

 

 

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37 minutes ago, oneshot1979 said:

Had something similar to your mate happen to me but I caught 450mm 250mm X 6mtr beam with my head instead. Fractured skull, compressed spine, 4 dislocated ribs, multiple bruised organs, fractured pelvis and dislocated hip, Tibia and Fibula both sticking out of lower leg and jeans. Pulled myself clear of wreckage to make access easier for paramedics got my breath back from being winded then calmly assessed the damage, called the forklift driver some names and then sat patiently waiting for the emergency services. No pain for nearly 45-50 mins but when the shock wore off didn't I know about it. Should've killed me and would've definitely killed the young lad working with me had I not pushed him clear. Weird experience,  what your eyes are telling you is that you're badly injured and your life's on a knife edge but your body and brain do something to keep you functioning, get out get safe get help keep calm stop the blood keep breathing and the one thing I kept repeating was Don't let me fall asleep. Shock is a both a killer and a lifesaver.

 

 

Horrendous experience. 

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I normally win the injury top trumps.

Not something I tend to talk about but...

Riding my motorbike somewhat "enthusiastically" I had a car turn right in front of me, went straight over the bonnet and into a tree!

Tore my left leg off at the knee, snapped my left femur, shattered my right knee, broke my right tib' and fib', both went out through the skin.

Fractured pelvis, broken ribs and left collar bone.

Pulled the renal artery out of my right kidney.

The skin on the entire left side of my body was bruised black for weeks.

A week in intensive care, four months in hospital, a few hundred stitches, metal pins, plates and screws and a gallon or so of fresh blood and I was as good as new, almost.

Thanks to the doctors and nurses and the support of my family, 35 years on, I'm still going.

I remember talking to my partner in hospital, they'd let her see me as I wasn't expected to live, I didn't know the extent of my injuries at the time but I wasn't in pain, that all came later.

Now when people tell me they're in pain, I tend to think they don't really know what pain is.

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Wymondley said:

I normally win the injury top trumps.

Not something I tend to talk about but...

Riding my motorbike somewhat "enthusiastically" I had a car turn right in front of me, went straight over the bonnet and into a tree!

Tore my left leg off at the knee, snapped my left femur, shattered my right knee, broke my right tib' and fib', both went out through the skin.

Fractured pelvis, broken ribs and left collar bone.

Pulled the renal artery out of my right kidney.

The skin on the entire left side of my body was bruised black for weeks.

A week in intensive care, four months in hospital, a few hundred stitches, metal pins, plates and screws and a gallon or so of fresh blood and I was as good as new, almost.

Thanks to the doctors and nurses and the support of my family, 35 years on, I'm still going.

I remember talking to my partner in hospital, they'd let her see me as I wasn't expected to live, I didn't know the extent of my injuries at the time but I wasn't in pain, that all came later.

Now when people tell me they're in pain, I tend to think they don't really know what pain is.

 

Well that does sound like it would sting a bit.But what about the car? You had to use your bike to wreck it. I, on the other hand, slid backwards into a triumph acclaim and wrote it off by flattening the boot and bit that holds the number plate. Broke some bones in my back but didn’t really know what was going on and they had to stop me crawling down the road.

When ever I have broken something, there has always been a metallic taste in the mouth and some nausea, even before any pain kicks in.

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1 hour ago, SpringDon said:

Well that does sound like it would sting a bit.But what about the car? You had to use your bike to wreck it. I, on the other hand, slid backwards into a triumph acclaim and wrote it off by flattening the boot and bit that holds the number plate. Broke some bones in my back but didn’t really know what was going on and they had to stop me crawling down the road.

When ever I have broken something, there has always been a metallic taste in the mouth and some nausea, even before any pain kicks in.

That taste and nausea is from from the production of raised levels of  'catecholcolomines' these are collectively known as 'adrenaline' and there are several types of hormone produce in the 'fight and flight response.' Some mechanisms of these 'agonists' inhibit salivary production in the response.

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I’ve been fortunate never to have suffered any major injuries like some of you. My son badly broke his arm aged 11 playing rugby. I remember going into A&E and his arm was, literally, at right angles. I winced, every doctor who saw him winced but he said the pain wasn’t too bad. They did subsequently dose him up in morphine and an 11 year old off his head on morphine is quite funny to watch. 

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