Night of compound fractures…

Sunday, August 7^th 2005

It had been slow most of the morning and early afternoon. We were finishing up some training when the first call of the day came.

We were dispatched to an approximately 50 year old male with a compound fracture of his lower leg (For those of you who don’t have medical background a compound fracture is when the bone comes through the skin.). When we arrived at the scene we found the man on the ground under his pear tree, with a mangled ladder at his side.

When we pulled back his pant leg it revealed a serious compound fracture to both his fibula and tibia. Both bones were completely severed and had punctured this skin in two different locations. He still had function and feeling of his foot and toes and there was no serious bleeding. This is very lucky for this type of injury.

After returning from the previous call it got quiet once again until about 8pm. We then relieved another dispatch for a second compound ankle fracture.

When we arrived we found an approximately 60 year old woman with a less serious compound fracture of her tibia. There were no signs of a major fall, but from further questioning we were able to determine that this injury was due to a previous injury she had earlier in the week, when she had a small hairline fracture but never went to the doctor to get it taken care of.

After limping around on this injury for a week, the fracture finally gave way when she was going downstairs, and completely separated and punctured through the skin.

What a night!

posted by Unknown at 5:23 PM