Article 18: Football can be Dangerous. Sometimes ER Doctors can be Worse. (980 hits)
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Submitted by Evan Greene <ScoutCJustice.at.aol.com> (View user info) at 2003-10-01 21:18:07 EDT
Back in the glory days of my youth, I played football for my high school team. I was the starting center and all was well (except for the fact that we sucked, we went 1-8). Our team was playing the big rival about halfway through the season. Unfortunately, our big rival had a lot more talent and we got our asses handed to us. One series our offense managed to go three and out (we actually managed that a lot). We lined up to punt. For those of you that don't follow football or don't know the rules, cut blocking (blocking below the waist) is illegal during punts and kickoffs. There is a reason for this, and I was about to demonstrate why.
The punt returner for the other team, who was a fast SOB, was streaking down the sideline. I adjusted my angle in an attempt to cut him off. As I was making my turn I planted my left foot into the ground. It was at that same moment that I was cut blocked from the side. A 200 lb. man wearing full pads and running at full speed just impacted on my left leg about halfway between my knee and ankle. Remember, my left leg was planted into the ground. There is no video of this, but I'm sure it would have been one of those, "Oh my god, look what happened to that guy's leg" kind of thing. My cleats did their job and kept my foot stuck in the ground. I was hit on the leg so there was not enough force to knock my body sideways. All the force of the hit had to be absorbed by the bones in my leg. Bones can not absorb that much force.
I collapsed in a screaming, writhing, sack of useless. The trainers ran onto the field (after the play was over of course, the punt returner ran for a touchdown by the way, no penalty on the guy that cut blocked me). They quickly diagnosed me with a broken leg, to be specific, a broken tibia and/or fibula, which are the two bones in the lower leg. The tibia is the big shin bone and the fibula is the little one that is just kind of there. The trainers inflated a cast around my leg and took my, not so much screaming and writhing, but still very useless ass off the field on a golf cart. They were kind enough to put me in a position that I could see the game until the paramedics arrived. Watching my team get its ass kicked hurt almost as much as my leg so I just closed my eyes and went to my "happy place".
When the paramedics arrived they quickly diagnosed me with a broken tibia and/or fibula. The put me in the ambulance, with sirens and everything (how cool is that?), and took me to the hospital. The doctor at the ER diagnosed me with a sprained ankle. Wait a sec... a sprained ankle... what the hell? The doctor took an x-ray of my leg centered on my ankle and sure enough there was no break. I felt like a wuss. I had screamed in pain, had an inflatable cast put on my leg, was carted off the field, had the paramedics come get me and all I had was a sprained ankle? Now, I know sprained ankles are painful and nagging injuries, but you got to admit that it just doesn't sound as intimidating as a broken leg.
Anyways, it seemed that the ER doctor was right; I just had a sprained ankle. After a few days on crutches I was walking around, albeit with a limp. The next weekend I went to homecoming. I couldn't dance very well, but I never really could anyways. I wasn't feeling too much pain after the first couple of days (and some good ol' hydro codine helped me through those). I was on the mend.
The middle of the next week, I was due for a checkup to see how me ankle was. This was almost two weeks after the injury had happened. As I stepped out of my car in the parking lot, I felt something shift in my leg, and I was bombarded with intense pain. Needless to say I was confused. I just had a sprained ankle, why the hell is my leg hurting so bad? I couldn't put any weight on my leg, and I had to hop to the building where a nurse got me some crutches. The doctor (a different one thank god) took another x-ray of my leg. When it came back, there was a huge, jagged break in my fibula. Not a hairline fracture which x-rays sometimes miss, but a jagged break all the way through the bone. In fact the fibula intersected a crazy angle, not nice and straight like it should be. For the second time that day I was confused. The answer was soon provided. The x-ray at the ER (which was centered on the ankle because the ER doctor diagnosed me with a sprained ankle) stopped about two inches short of the break. Had the x-ray been taken two inches higher, the break would have been seen. I had been walking around on a broken leg for over a week, and had not even noticed.
Remember that I said the tibia is the big bone in the leg, and the fibula is just kind of there. That's pretty much true. The fibula only carries about 15% of a person's weight. You can walk without a fibula in fact. Hence I could walk only a few days after breaking it. The reason I wasn't feeling much pain was thanks to the inflatable cast put on my leg after the injury. The pressure applied by the cast had forced the bone back into place so it was straight and not screwing up any of the nerves surrounding it. When I stepped out of the car at the doctor's office two weeks later, the bone shifted along the break, causing the intense pain. Because the fibula is a relatively minor bone (nothing seems that minor when you break it) it was allowed to heal at the funky angle it was at after the shift. Now, it will occasionally pop (and when you get bones popping where there is no joint something is awry), and it is sore from time to time. Had the ER doctor diagnosed my injury correctly, my fibula would be straight like it always was and pop and soreness free instead of at the 165 degree angle it is now. It would take major surgery now to fix the bone, and the costs of that far outweigh the benefits so I just put up with my popping leg.
So, in conclusion, I guess the moral of this story is, if several people that know what they are talking about (trainers, and paramedics) diagnose you with something broken, make sure that the doctor at the ER takes an x-ray of the whole fucking bone.
User Reviews
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2003-10-11 19:55:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
SUE THEIR ASSES OFF!!!!!!!
im serious, my father is a doctor so i hate frivilous lawsuits as much as any doctor themself. but this was truly the doctor and the radiologist's fault. if you have the money to get counsel you can get a good $25,000+ out of the lawsuit.
unless this took place a long time ago. then your fucked and you cant do anything.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2003-10-02 11:31:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
eh.. i feel all wierd inside.
Submitted by TheRef (user info) at 2003-10-01 21:35:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
there was a dude in my tech school at keesler afb that had a collarbone injury too. this dude was nearly done with a 2 year course in combat control. These are The af version of special forces. At any rate he broke his collarbone while pt'ing. The doc set it and he was fine. he couldn't do pt but he could do his schoolwork. the school he attended at kessler was air traffic control. After about 8 weeks he went in for a checkup. A new doc informed him that the first doc set the bone wrong and he would have to reset it. By the time the new set healed, he had already missed too much and he was washed out of his course. 2 years of hard work down the drain. I think the guy went awol after that. he just kinda disappeared.
Submitted by YellowDragon (user info) at 2003-10-01 21:27:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
He's on, he's off... on off on on on off... waiting for the "on"... I gotta say, though-- at least it's original. There are very few broken-bone stories around.
Regards,
YellowDragon
Submitted by PWNstar (user info) at 2003-10-01 21:26:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Too true. During my sophomore year, one of our all-state swimmers broke his collar-bone during a football game over fall break (the tackeler was our captain and one of the top 8 breastrokers in the state). He was diagnosed with a bruised collar bone. weeks went buy and he kept having pain in practice. Went back into the doctors office for like the 3rd or 4th time and, like magic, the damn thing was broken and seperated.