shattered collarbone, shoulder, and arm, requiring surgery
Setting: modern day London
Characters & Issues: James Bond, Craig era. He's extremely fit and in his mid-40s. Injury does not normally happen to him (for example, he can plunge hundreds of feet into the water, go over a waterfall, and not die). Sometimes the laws of physics do not apply. But I do have a few questions about a specific sort of injury.
I've got him falling off a moving train, landing on his left arm, cracking his collarbone and shoulder, and breaking his humerus in several places, requiring arm surgery with bone plates/wires/screws/etc. (I realize that far more than that would happen to a normal person who fell off a train!) What sort of recovery time are we looking at here? I'm having a hard time finding anything that specific. I've read estimates of anything from "a few weeks to several months, depending on the scope of the injury." It gets more complicated when I factor in the shoulder and the collarbone. (He also has two cracked ribs, but those will heal long before his arm does.)
I've currently got him getting this surgery the day after he's hurt (he's had his arm immobilized in the meantime). I'm assuming that he'd wear some kind of cast that completely immobilizes his arm--when would it come off? When he starts physical therapy, how long would that take until he gets more or less complete mobility/strength back? I can figure out the sorts of exercises he'll do, I think, I just don't know how long he'll need to do them for with an injury of this kind. When would he be able to lose the cast entirely, and once he does, would he use something less restrictive, like a sling, for a while?
Searched: Google, Wikipedia, WebMD, Mayo Clinic, various other medical sites. I've also checked several of the medical tags in this community, but didn't find anything precisely like this.
Search terms used: broken arm, fractured arm, comminuted fracture, arm surgery, bone surgery, recovery time, physical therapy broken arm...um, lots more.
Even though it's James Bond, I'd at least like to get the specifics right. I'd hate to say that he gets the cast off in 2 months, and then have a bunch of people say "No way it'd take that long just to lose the cast," or at the other end of the spectrum, "Oh please, he'd be in it for at least 6 months." Help? I'd really appreciate it!
Characters & Issues: James Bond, Craig era. He's extremely fit and in his mid-40s. Injury does not normally happen to him (for example, he can plunge hundreds of feet into the water, go over a waterfall, and not die). Sometimes the laws of physics do not apply. But I do have a few questions about a specific sort of injury.
I've got him falling off a moving train, landing on his left arm, cracking his collarbone and shoulder, and breaking his humerus in several places, requiring arm surgery with bone plates/wires/screws/etc. (I realize that far more than that would happen to a normal person who fell off a train!) What sort of recovery time are we looking at here? I'm having a hard time finding anything that specific. I've read estimates of anything from "a few weeks to several months, depending on the scope of the injury." It gets more complicated when I factor in the shoulder and the collarbone. (He also has two cracked ribs, but those will heal long before his arm does.)
I've currently got him getting this surgery the day after he's hurt (he's had his arm immobilized in the meantime). I'm assuming that he'd wear some kind of cast that completely immobilizes his arm--when would it come off? When he starts physical therapy, how long would that take until he gets more or less complete mobility/strength back? I can figure out the sorts of exercises he'll do, I think, I just don't know how long he'll need to do them for with an injury of this kind. When would he be able to lose the cast entirely, and once he does, would he use something less restrictive, like a sling, for a while?
Searched: Google, Wikipedia, WebMD, Mayo Clinic, various other medical sites. I've also checked several of the medical tags in this community, but didn't find anything precisely like this.
Search terms used: broken arm, fractured arm, comminuted fracture, arm surgery, bone surgery, recovery time, physical therapy broken arm...um, lots more.
Even though it's James Bond, I'd at least like to get the specifics right. I'd hate to say that he gets the cast off in 2 months, and then have a bunch of people say "No way it'd take that long just to lose the cast," or at the other end of the spectrum, "Oh please, he'd be in it for at least 6 months." Help? I'd really appreciate it!