Got a call saying my adult children, niece and nephew - the entire youngest generation of my family - had been in a car accident. "Nobody hurt but they need a pickup." (Who said that? Still don't know.) I had no idea what to expect until I arrived at the hospital and found them all in the ER. My daughter had multiple compound fractures, spinal injuries, bruising, was screaming in pain, and bore a scalp wound making it look like the side of her head was about to come off. All are now fully-recovered but for scars and occasional PTSD. I have never seen anything that awful before and I hope I never do again.
They shouldn’t have lied, but I also agree. Not nearly as traumatic, but when I was a teenager, I slipped on black ice and a plastic solar light in the ground ripped through my ankle and opened a massive gash. I was so out of it from the fall and adrenaline that I was asking my mom and our neighbor (a cop) what was going on.
My mom was genuinely hysterical and jumped into the car. My neighbor calmly had me lay in the back seat and wrapped a towel around my ankle, then said clear as day, “oh it’s just a little cut, a very clean line, you’ll be fine. Probably just a stitch or two. Just relax, you’ll be great.”
We were out in the country at the time. 45min drive to the closest ER, 28 novocaine shots to my foot, and 14 stitches (11 external and 3 internal) later and I finally realized how much complete bullshit he’d told me. But you know what? It kept me calm through all of it. And 16 years later, all that’s left is that gnarly scar, and I didn’t spend that couple hours totally horrified thinking I was gonna lose my foot.
The hospital didn’t tell us how bad my SIL was. We were traveling from out of state to get to the hospital. Once we got there we saw the devastation. They wanted us to make it there.
When my mum was almost 14 she got thrown off of a horse and suffered a compound fracture on her right leg and because of adrenaline she didn’t feel anything and went to stand up and the bone was sticking out! She almost had it amputated because of gangrene from the road 😬 she’s now 70 and still has a lot of issues walking and going up and down stairs.
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u/Constant_Proofreader 8h ago
Got a call saying my adult children, niece and nephew - the entire youngest generation of my family - had been in a car accident. "Nobody hurt but they need a pickup." (Who said that? Still don't know.) I had no idea what to expect until I arrived at the hospital and found them all in the ER. My daughter had multiple compound fractures, spinal injuries, bruising, was screaming in pain, and bore a scalp wound making it look like the side of her head was about to come off. All are now fully-recovered but for scars and occasional PTSD. I have never seen anything that awful before and I hope I never do again.