Three Trauma Cases
Ride Motorcycles, Not Fences
A 27-year-old man lost control of his motorcycle and ran up against a three-foot-tall chain link fence. He was brought in by ambulance complaining of severe groin pain from having been dragged along the top of the fence. The medics reported that his testicle had been amputated. They said they picked it off the fence and had it in a plastic bag. What I found in the bag was a large piece of scrotal skin. I found the testicle hanging back between his legs, attached only by the spermatic cord.
The urologist took him to the operating room to finish removing the testicle and repair the injury.
Dangerous Summersault
My patient was a 22-year-old female who was playing on the floor with her niece and nephew. She tried to do a forward roll or summersault. She didn’t roll over enough and came straight down on her head. This caused sudden onset of severe neck pain as her neck twisted underneath her. This was associated with numbness in her right arm that quickly went away.
My first reaction was, “No one can break her neck doing a summersault on the living room floor” but x-rays showed two fractures of the second vertebra. She was admitted to the hospital for placement of a halo brace. Here is a simple explanation of what this is: http://kidshealth.org/parent/question/medical/halo_brace.html
Ice Avalanche
A young man was transferred to the emergency department from a nearby chicken processing plant. He had been working in a giant room where they stored huge amounts of crushed ice used in processing the chicken. He had been assigned to break down a large amount of ice that had formed against one of the walls of the room. As he chipped away at the wall of ice, it suddenly collapsed, burying him under a huge mound of crushed ice. The paramedics reported that coworkers were able to quickly uncover his head, allowing him to breath, but it took approximately thirty minutes to free him from the ice.
On arrival in the emergency department, he was found to be hypothermic and have several minor injuries.
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Comments (5)
asucena
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Wow that an great story……I can’t wait for more to come
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Annessa
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Never a dull moment! This stuff is too bizarre NOT to be true.
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Corky Gutierrez
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This is better than an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Although you could share some plots. Yikes!
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Virginia
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I always enjoy the stories and the pictures. Great picture of you Tad on this. I also love the new format. Much nicer I think. Keep ’em coming.
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Flavia
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Wow!! incredible and wow! Don’t know how you can handle all these, but I am glad that you and many others can!! Thanks for sharing all these stories. It is like a novel.
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