O SNAP!
Quick summary of Sunday's events...
(note for those who don't realize it - Winston is the name of my 15 year old son)
We were at the Gwinnett Braves game at CoolRay Field for the Sunday afternoon game. Our seats were in the outfield grass burm. In the middle of the Outfield hill is a giant green wall for advertisements. Behind it the slope of the grass is much steeper than elsewhere in the hill.
Winston and his friend Kaya were playing catch with a Tennis Ball that was to be used in an after-game promotion. During the 6th inning Winston missed a catch and went over to get the ball on the hill. He slipped and fell down the hill. His foot stopped before the rest of him and folded under. He describes a rather loud SNAP! He rolled down the rest of the hill into the holly bushes. Erik walked over to me calmly and says "Dad, you need to go see Winston" and pointed across the hill. I went over to find him in a fetal position on the hill bottom. He said rather bluntly - "I broke my leg". I asked for better information and clarity since he was not crying. He described the event calmly and asked me to look at his ankle. I called over to Denise to call the Medics. They hear me and arrived quickly.
Short check later and test and the lead said he thought it was broken. They offered an Ambulance but also suggested we take him ourselves. Kind of covering both ass-cheek behavior. They splinted him in an immobilizing boot and rolled him out to the car. I drove him to Northside Hospital (instead of going by Ambulance to Gwinnett Regional. Less than one hour after the fall, he was in the ER and being seen. 30 minutes later we had the confirmation from the Xray and were being set in a temporary cast.
A perfect fracture of his fibula right at the ankle.
We then went home with the referral to the Orthopedic Specialist for follow up. Today we went in for the visit - 24 hours after the event he was talking to the doc and getting fitted for his new cast.
Doc explained just how lucky he was and just how strange it was how it went. He has a near perfect radial fracture exactly on the contact point of the fibula to the ankle with no sign of ligament or tendon damage. So clean and with no splinters or fragments that no other work (surgery or plate) would be needed. He even gave him the option of going out with an aircast/boot immediately. We chose to go with a traditional hard cast for 2 weeks and to then go to the boot. So, now Winston is sitting on the couch in his new blue cast.
The first writings on the cast were made and he is set for school either tomorrow or Wednesday. The front top of the cast says "DANGER: Tennis Ball Crossing"; the outer ankle has the number of the offending ball "434" on it; and the inside edge has the simple words "Shit Happens".
His biggest grumble on the whole thing is not the pain, but rather that with all the stupid stunts in his life, it was the simple act of walking after a ball that broke him!
(a request has been sent to the management of the ballpark for the return of the ball he was chasing)
notice the nice shape of the break...
He is looking for only two weeks in the cast. Followed with two-three weeks in the boot. Crutches for the last 5 weeks of school are likely. What a lovely SPRING BREAK.....
(note for those who don't realize it - Winston is the name of my 15 year old son)
We were at the Gwinnett Braves game at CoolRay Field for the Sunday afternoon game. Our seats were in the outfield grass burm. In the middle of the Outfield hill is a giant green wall for advertisements. Behind it the slope of the grass is much steeper than elsewhere in the hill.
Winston and his friend Kaya were playing catch with a Tennis Ball that was to be used in an after-game promotion. During the 6th inning Winston missed a catch and went over to get the ball on the hill. He slipped and fell down the hill. His foot stopped before the rest of him and folded under. He describes a rather loud SNAP! He rolled down the rest of the hill into the holly bushes. Erik walked over to me calmly and says "Dad, you need to go see Winston" and pointed across the hill. I went over to find him in a fetal position on the hill bottom. He said rather bluntly - "I broke my leg". I asked for better information and clarity since he was not crying. He described the event calmly and asked me to look at his ankle. I called over to Denise to call the Medics. They hear me and arrived quickly.
Short check later and test and the lead said he thought it was broken. They offered an Ambulance but also suggested we take him ourselves. Kind of covering both ass-cheek behavior. They splinted him in an immobilizing boot and rolled him out to the car. I drove him to Northside Hospital (instead of going by Ambulance to Gwinnett Regional. Less than one hour after the fall, he was in the ER and being seen. 30 minutes later we had the confirmation from the Xray and were being set in a temporary cast.
A perfect fracture of his fibula right at the ankle.
We then went home with the referral to the Orthopedic Specialist for follow up. Today we went in for the visit - 24 hours after the event he was talking to the doc and getting fitted for his new cast.
Doc explained just how lucky he was and just how strange it was how it went. He has a near perfect radial fracture exactly on the contact point of the fibula to the ankle with no sign of ligament or tendon damage. So clean and with no splinters or fragments that no other work (surgery or plate) would be needed. He even gave him the option of going out with an aircast/boot immediately. We chose to go with a traditional hard cast for 2 weeks and to then go to the boot. So, now Winston is sitting on the couch in his new blue cast.
The first writings on the cast were made and he is set for school either tomorrow or Wednesday. The front top of the cast says "DANGER: Tennis Ball Crossing"; the outer ankle has the number of the offending ball "434" on it; and the inside edge has the simple words "Shit Happens".
His biggest grumble on the whole thing is not the pain, but rather that with all the stupid stunts in his life, it was the simple act of walking after a ball that broke him!
(a request has been sent to the management of the ballpark for the return of the ball he was chasing)
notice the nice shape of the break...
He is looking for only two weeks in the cast. Followed with two-three weeks in the boot. Crutches for the last 5 weeks of school are likely. What a lovely SPRING BREAK.....