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- Jan 28, 2007
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So two days ago I was at work in the tunnels we have built to put the train in.
On one side of the tunnel is an elevated platform (like most subways I guess.)
Against this wall we have stockpiled a lot of train track. Each piece is 550 meters long (something like 625 yards) and looks just like regular old train track. The pile is about eight tracks wide at the bottom, and two wide at the top. It basically forms a staircase for us up to the elevated walkway part.
Everybody got a picture of this in their heads? It's a half-kilometer wide staircase made out of traintracks.
Well, Tuesday afternoon I was walking down the track pile towards the end of the day. I hit a bit of oil on the second step from the bottom and my right foot slipped sideways.
I hit the bottom step facing parallel to the rail, looking down the tunnel. My right foot slipped down in between the train tracks, locking perfectly in the gap there. At the same moment, I fell sideways, snapping my ankle perfectly at the track. I had nothing to grab, I just fell straight sideways and hit the ground so hard my hip is all bruised.
"Well," I thought, "maybe it's just a bad sprain." So I looked down. No, my foot was clearly still vertical, and everything else was horizontal. Definitely some breakage there! "Get Dave," I said to my coworker. "Tell him I need extraction for a broken ankle." The coworker took off down the tunnel to get to Dave, who had a phone. He was only a few hundred meters away. In the meantime I had to get to work.
I thought for a second.
I've been hurt badly before, and I find I typically experience what I call the "free minute." That's about a minute I seem to get (and I assume others get it too) before the real pain kicks in. Your body just sits there going, "man, what the hell was that?" Usually you spend it sitting there, wondering the same thing as your body. But that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to utilize my free minute to make the situation as much better for myself as I could.
So I thought, what are my priorities right now?
1. Deal with any aspect of the injury that seems likely to cause further problems during the wait for treatment.
2. Get myself in the most comfortable position I can to wait for extraction.
3. Get out of my expensive boot before it really hurts badly to do so, or the paramedics will cut it off and wreck it.
Addressing issue one was the first concern for me. I don't know a lot about medicine but I did meet a guy who'd had a severly dislocated ankle which led to a complete loss of circulation in his foot. By the time they got him out, and into a hospital, he required amputation. I decided this was a potential problem as my ankle was bent 90 degrees outward. Leaving my foot wedged in between the tracks, I grabbed onto my knee with both hands and yanked upwards with my hands and pulled up as hard as I could with my leg. There were popping sounds but when I let go my leg was aligned pretty much right again. It hurt a lot but would have hurt worse later. Victory!
Issue two: comfortable position. I would guess I was only about fifteen seconds in at this point so I took a second to think about how I would like to be positioned. There was a bit of a slope, so I thought head down would be best in case I felt a bit shocky. Also, the floor of the tunnel is always wet, so it would be best to be up on the rail pile. First I worked my foot out from between the rails. Not that hard - I was in super stiff, heavy leather boots. It was almost like having a cast on, holding my ankle straight again. I pulled my foot out. Then I spun around 180 degrees, and lay down, my right leg on an upper "stair" of the rail pile. That ought to be prety decent!
Issue three: the boot. This is the part I was worried about. I undid the laces - fortunately speed lace hooks on most of the boot made this a very fast operation. I loosened off the bottom laces, bit down hard on my teeth and pulled out my foot. Painful but not unmanageable.
I set the boot down under my head and laid back. I lay there for about five seconds before the first wave of pain hit. So that's pretty near perfect timing.
Within a minute Dave showed up with the information that the First Aid people were on their way, and that I could just sit tight as extraction was coming. I was pretty uncomfortable of course, but nowhere near as bad as if I'd stayed where I first hit the ground.
Initial condition: Lying in a half inch of flowing water, angulated fracture or severe dislocation in the ankle, about to loose one half of a five hundred dollar pair of boots.
Condition after the free minute: ankle still broken of course, but no longer angulated or dislocated, boot off, and able to feel a pulse in the foot, resting fairly comfortably.
So here is my big wilderness survival tip: take advantage of that minute of adrenalin or whatever it is that you get to make some fast decisions about how you want to spend your time waiting for help. Be fast! You do have some time before it really hurts so get yourself set up!
Epilogue: I was in the hospital for a bit and they put a bunch of screws and plates in me. Apparently I won't be able to put any weight on it at all for another six weeks, and for the next two weeks I pretty much am only allowed to sit or lie with my foot in the air.
WHAT A PAIN!!!
On one side of the tunnel is an elevated platform (like most subways I guess.)
Against this wall we have stockpiled a lot of train track. Each piece is 550 meters long (something like 625 yards) and looks just like regular old train track. The pile is about eight tracks wide at the bottom, and two wide at the top. It basically forms a staircase for us up to the elevated walkway part.
Everybody got a picture of this in their heads? It's a half-kilometer wide staircase made out of traintracks.
Well, Tuesday afternoon I was walking down the track pile towards the end of the day. I hit a bit of oil on the second step from the bottom and my right foot slipped sideways.
I hit the bottom step facing parallel to the rail, looking down the tunnel. My right foot slipped down in between the train tracks, locking perfectly in the gap there. At the same moment, I fell sideways, snapping my ankle perfectly at the track. I had nothing to grab, I just fell straight sideways and hit the ground so hard my hip is all bruised.
"Well," I thought, "maybe it's just a bad sprain." So I looked down. No, my foot was clearly still vertical, and everything else was horizontal. Definitely some breakage there! "Get Dave," I said to my coworker. "Tell him I need extraction for a broken ankle." The coworker took off down the tunnel to get to Dave, who had a phone. He was only a few hundred meters away. In the meantime I had to get to work.
I thought for a second.
I've been hurt badly before, and I find I typically experience what I call the "free minute." That's about a minute I seem to get (and I assume others get it too) before the real pain kicks in. Your body just sits there going, "man, what the hell was that?" Usually you spend it sitting there, wondering the same thing as your body. But that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to utilize my free minute to make the situation as much better for myself as I could.
So I thought, what are my priorities right now?
1. Deal with any aspect of the injury that seems likely to cause further problems during the wait for treatment.
2. Get myself in the most comfortable position I can to wait for extraction.
3. Get out of my expensive boot before it really hurts badly to do so, or the paramedics will cut it off and wreck it.
Addressing issue one was the first concern for me. I don't know a lot about medicine but I did meet a guy who'd had a severly dislocated ankle which led to a complete loss of circulation in his foot. By the time they got him out, and into a hospital, he required amputation. I decided this was a potential problem as my ankle was bent 90 degrees outward. Leaving my foot wedged in between the tracks, I grabbed onto my knee with both hands and yanked upwards with my hands and pulled up as hard as I could with my leg. There were popping sounds but when I let go my leg was aligned pretty much right again. It hurt a lot but would have hurt worse later. Victory!
Issue two: comfortable position. I would guess I was only about fifteen seconds in at this point so I took a second to think about how I would like to be positioned. There was a bit of a slope, so I thought head down would be best in case I felt a bit shocky. Also, the floor of the tunnel is always wet, so it would be best to be up on the rail pile. First I worked my foot out from between the rails. Not that hard - I was in super stiff, heavy leather boots. It was almost like having a cast on, holding my ankle straight again. I pulled my foot out. Then I spun around 180 degrees, and lay down, my right leg on an upper "stair" of the rail pile. That ought to be prety decent!
Issue three: the boot. This is the part I was worried about. I undid the laces - fortunately speed lace hooks on most of the boot made this a very fast operation. I loosened off the bottom laces, bit down hard on my teeth and pulled out my foot. Painful but not unmanageable.
I set the boot down under my head and laid back. I lay there for about five seconds before the first wave of pain hit. So that's pretty near perfect timing.
Within a minute Dave showed up with the information that the First Aid people were on their way, and that I could just sit tight as extraction was coming. I was pretty uncomfortable of course, but nowhere near as bad as if I'd stayed where I first hit the ground.
Initial condition: Lying in a half inch of flowing water, angulated fracture or severe dislocation in the ankle, about to loose one half of a five hundred dollar pair of boots.
Condition after the free minute: ankle still broken of course, but no longer angulated or dislocated, boot off, and able to feel a pulse in the foot, resting fairly comfortably.
So here is my big wilderness survival tip: take advantage of that minute of adrenalin or whatever it is that you get to make some fast decisions about how you want to spend your time waiting for help. Be fast! You do have some time before it really hurts so get yourself set up!
Epilogue: I was in the hospital for a bit and they put a bunch of screws and plates in me. Apparently I won't be able to put any weight on it at all for another six weeks, and for the next two weeks I pretty much am only allowed to sit or lie with my foot in the air.
WHAT A PAIN!!!
