She was on top of a ladder doing home maintenance and fell....
We got a call on Wednesday that she was taken to the hospital by ambulance and my husband and I got there as fast as we could. Apparently she was there for a about 5 hours already with her head and back immobilized. She was treated for a concussion, and it was determined that she has a break just below her knee cap and a chip in the ankle.
We got there in time to watch them sew up a gash in her shin and put a back slab splint/cast on her poor swollen leg from her foot to the top of her thigh. There was a quick- here you need to rent these crutches, sign this contract and yelling that we needed to get her out into the hall even before she was dressed -- we need the room for a serious emergency and it is the only one where someone in not hooked up to monitors. It would have been a lot easier to have been "out of there" if she didn't have to wait to get her leg stitched (6 hours) and wait for the crutches to appear and then find someone to help her get clothes on over the broken leg.
This was a Wednesday afternoon and she was taken to a hospital at the other side of town and we were told that was the location because it was the only one doing Xrays and casting at the time. Seriously? Our city had a population of 700,000 with about 7 hospitals and she was taking up the only available emergency room space in the city? There has to be a better way of organizing and using our hospital resources than this!
She goes to see an orthopedic surgeon in 10 days and we are hoping she will just be put into a solid cast then and surgery will not be necessary.
She has been so excited over an upcoming trip to work for several months in New Zealand but now it will have to be delayed much to her dismay. I am confident that it will all work out but in the meantime her life is on hold.....
Ladder Safety Information
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