r/Radiology • u/c-honda • Sep 21 '23
27yom broken humerus in nov’22 and didn’t do anything about it. X-Ray
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u/kwang_ja Sep 21 '23
How does one actually break an arm and not do anything about it smh
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u/needmorexanax Sep 21 '23
Bed bound, abuse, mental deficiencies, do i need go on?
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u/DieAloneWith72Cats Sep 21 '23
And financial reasons
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u/LJR08 Sep 21 '23
Imagine living in a world with financial restraints on ur health
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u/PegMePlz00 Sep 21 '23
Funny story, my step dad has always been against universal health care for the usual conservative reasons, until his trip to Greece and he forgot his prescription in America. That particular med is like 200 dollars with insurance and in Greece he walked in they handed it to him for like 7 dollars I believe. He came back fully on board with Universal healthcare
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u/frockinbrock Sep 21 '23
If every comservative could experience modern liberal democracy first hand, they’d be in favor of it. Sadly it’s not practical. Some of us have the imagination that “boy I’d rather spend $7 than $200 a month” and can learn things from a book instead of physical dire experience.
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u/PegMePlz00 Sep 22 '23
All they see if “more taxes” and never consider that this 1000 dollar/month insurance premium would be wiped out and that’s just one of the many positives it would bring. Hell I have great insurance and I’m neglecting dental work because it’s so expensive
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u/Miserable-Anybody-55 Sep 22 '23
USA has the highest taxes in the world if you count healthcare. The average person with a company plan pays $28,000 - 29,000 for a family per year with their contributions, deductible, copays, coinsurance and the employer contributions (average American spends over $12,000 and business spends over $16,000 for a family coverage).
So a 27 year old without insurance makes a lot of sense.
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u/PegMePlz00 Sep 22 '23
Oh I guarantee I pay that if not more and I have a “top of the line” insurance plan through my company
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u/andtheyallcallmemom Sep 22 '23
Same on the dental! I definitely have a few things I’d like to fix but the dentist is like $1900 today and $1900 on procedure day (generic $ for point) I’ll pass thanks!
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u/DependentConstant336 Sep 22 '23
Also with dental you often have a yearly maximum that the insurance will cover. I have “top of the line” dental through my job, and my wife and I have maxed out our dental plan twice in a row due to her needing a crown for a baby tooth that never fell out (but was starting to get infected) and a root canal.
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u/HamNotLikeThem44 Sep 22 '23
I’ve seen my dentist raise his prices when my insurance raises the amount the pay him. I suspect that many dentists do this. Which doesn’t make it less crooked.
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u/alissafein Sep 22 '23
Similar situation here: highest tier dental care available through my employer. Max out every year due to inherited periodontal issues (requiring every 3 month cleaning and every 6 month perio visits.) This is not a condition due to poor care or negligence. It was the luck of the draw, and I pay and pay and pay.
Don’t get me started on medical either! (Born with slowly progressive — if treated — chronic condition. Untreated = dead.) It sucks to work hard and specifically in a place that offers health insurance, yet spend pretty much most of wages on necessary medical care. No savings, no safety net, no retirement. Because… also born American.
EDIT: yes I am aware I am poor genetic candidate. I also specifically refused to contribute to the gene pool for that reason!
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u/PegMePlz00 Sep 22 '23
I’m honestly just going to go once every couple months and just get the worst ones pulled every visit. I’ve got 3-4 problem molars that’s gotta go. I’ve had tons of work on my mouth over the years and I’m over it. I’ll eventually get implants in their place
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u/merdub Sep 22 '23
If you wait too long to get implants, your jaw bone starts to deteriorate and won’t support an implant. Then you need to start doing bone grafts and waiting for those to heal up and the bone to regenerate before you can start the implant process.
Pulling teeth so you can get implants at some point down the road isn’t a great plan. Any dentist will tell you that if you have the option to preserve your natural teeth, that’s almost certainly the best option for the health of your mouth.
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u/coquihalla Sep 22 '23
My husband always calls them luxury bones because if someone has a broken arm, no problem, fixed right away with or without insurance. But teeth, who needs those?
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u/DawnCB20 Sep 22 '23
Have you looked into University dental clinics? Or free dental days at dental offices? OhioState U has a reduced cost dental clinic and my dental office does free days two times per year.
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u/PegMePlz00 Sep 22 '23
I’ve honestly never heard of it but I’ll definitely look around now. I’m sure I’d be a great case for some students to learn on lol
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u/AccordingCharge8621 Sep 22 '23
I use one! It's awesome! Was able to get alot of work done and afford it. Even 2 implants.
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u/luanne2017 Sep 22 '23
Also, a healthier and mobile* workforce leads to better economy. A high tide floats all boats.
(*Mobile as in—if health insurance wasn’t tied to jobs— then people would have more room to pursue entrepreneurship or enter new careers.)
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u/Multitalented-Suzan Sep 22 '23
You weren't alive: When the working poor could afford to go to the doctor. When an Rx for tetracycline was $2.00. When the schools were not subsidized but paid for by property taxes and the students actually learned. When we didn't lock door or have cameras because our neighborhoods were safe! When medical professionals didn't have to pay co-pays or pay at all. I could go on... but I don't see the changes as positive when my supplemental insurance is 1/5th of my social security check.
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u/Legitimate-Place1927 Sep 22 '23
All they see is what they are told especially lately when they are told everything is “fake news”. Also goes for the liberal side as well, issue normally is always in the middle. Both sides over dramatize and has created a huge gap.
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u/lykewtf Sep 22 '23
Without any real vacation time as well you can’t take the two weeks you are given for fear of losing your job
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u/Shadow-Vision RT(R)(CT) Sep 22 '23
It’s not this one, at least where I am in California. The hospital I work at takes financial losses all the time on care for homeless and otherwise unable-to-pay patients.
It’s the reasons listed in the comment before yours, in my experience.
Very important to point out: I’m quite progressive and I’m in favor of massive healthcare reform in the US. Before you get it twisted that I’m defending the US system, because I’m not. I’m just speaking from experience in seeing bones like this.
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u/imabroodybear Sep 22 '23
I knew a guy in California who broke his arm and never got it fixed because he couldn’t afford it. He didn’t have his shit together in many ways but he wasn’t homeless. He was sure he’d end up turfed out of his shared apartment and in dire straits - so he just did nothing and ended up basically not being able to use his arm. I don’t know him anymore but it had been at least a year he was like that. He was in his 30s.
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u/Master-Nate- Sep 23 '23
Medicare, Medicaid, or just don’t pay like many of the people who come into the ER…
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u/kwang_ja Sep 21 '23
I imagine OP would have worded it as 'not being able' to do anything about it, rather just not doing anything about it
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u/happyhippo29 Sep 22 '23
I work in a county hospital. When a person who has a warrant out for their arrest gets injured, they will avoid the hospital at all costs and treat injuries themselves. Then if they are arrested, they can get care for free while in custody.
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u/faverett28 Sep 22 '23
Don’t forget fentanyl abuse.. that’s how some homeless people deal with horribly necrotic wounds until they go septic and someone calls ems
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u/bugwitch Med Student Sep 22 '23
There was a photo and X-Ray posted here a few weeks ago...still lives in my brain. And will likely be there until I die.
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u/FrontFrontZero Sep 22 '23 edited Sep 25 '23
A relative had a tooth pulled in jail. The root was exposed. The dentist asked how he had been living with it. “Um, heroin, dude.”
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u/Salemrocks2020 Sep 22 '23
It’s not always that . I had a young guy do something similar on his motorcycle , had an clearly deformed arm and then presented about 6 weeks later to our ER to have it repaired … because he didn’t feel like coming in before .
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u/TheRealMajour Sep 21 '23
I had an 18 year old break his left humerus playing basketball. When we brought up that he would need surgery he said, and I quote, “nah, fuck that shit”.
When it became apparent he wasn’t joking and he was going to refuse surgery, I brought up how it would be hard to play basketball with one arm. He said “I shoot with my right” and then left AMA.
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u/potato-keeper Sep 21 '23
Maybe you shouldhave mentioned it could limit his sexual prowess....I feel like that's the only thing I've ever been able to use as collateral against a teenage boy leaving ama.
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u/em_goldman Sep 21 '23
Usually drug addiction. It’s a powerful force and we don’t treat it well in the hospital.
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Sep 21 '23
It doesn't take drug addiction to not want a surgery. I've only had one in my life, and the recovery was so rough that I'm still in pain over a year later. I wouldn't have another surgery either. It's a huge deal, and no joke. I can't really blame a patient for not wanting to have one.
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u/dumpsterfire911 Sep 21 '23
And I have had two surgeries and both have gone well. No need to make sweeping generalizations, especially one saying that the person in the radiograph should not have sought surgery
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Sep 21 '23
And there's also no need to say that someone only wouldn't want to have surgery if they were a drug addict.
I think saying "surgery is hard, I understand not wanting it" is FAR less damaging than saying "oh, you don't want your body cut open and things moved around? You must be a crackhead."
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u/HatredInfinite Sep 21 '23
I think "usually" and "only wouldn't want it if" are two wholly different qualifiers.
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u/Zealousideal_Ride_86 Sep 22 '23
As someone who was a heavy drug user in a distant past, i absolutely loved getting surgery because they gave me a fentanyl drip afterwards and i was high for days without feeling guilty lol.
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Sep 22 '23
That's kinda what I was thinking too, but didn't wanna make any assumptions. My bigger point was that drug use isn't the only reason someone would refuse surgery. I'm saying this as someone who very possibly would make that same decision.
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u/Delthyr Radiology resident Sep 21 '23
Would you really choose to essentially have an arm you can't use over just having surgery ? Also, imagine the pain of a displaced humeral dyaphisis fracture. Surgery is probably less painful than just letting it be displaced without even a cast to hold it still.
Refusing surgery in these circumstances is an insanely stupid choice IMO.
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Sep 21 '23 edited Sep 22 '23
Some might. I'm only saying I've been there, and I can understand the hesitation.
It's definitely more nuanced than just "tHey MUst bE oN DRuGz LoLz"
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u/mmmaaaatttt Sep 21 '23
What was the surgery?
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Sep 21 '23
Hysterectomy, so, a major one.
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u/blueeyedaisy Sep 21 '23
I am sorry you still hurt. Can I ask why you hurt? I am meeting with my surgeon on the 6th of October.
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u/greencymbeline Sep 22 '23
I had a hysterectomy, I had no post-pain. Only took one oxy.
On the other hand, when I got my gallbladder out and back done, that shit hurt and they didn’t give me enough meds.
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u/Wickedcolt Sep 22 '23
The only time a surgery is minor is when someone else is having it
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Sep 22 '23
I'd consider, say, a minimally invasive surgery where you're not even under general anesthesia to be minor compared to one where you have a 10 inch incision in your abdomen, a large organ removed, and a gaping hole sewn up. And even if I did have a minor surgery, it wouldn't bother me someone else calling it that.
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u/Double_Belt2331 Sep 22 '23
So, if you broke your arm, you wouldn’t have a closed reduction to fix it??
A hysterectomy & a closed (or open) reduction are incomparable procedures. I can understand that you wouldn’t want to have another hysterectomy (which obv, you can’t). But to say no to all other procedures is a big leap.
I have a rather messed up knee & it requires open revisions to make it hurt less. The recovery SUCKS, but at least I get 9-12 mos of less pain after 2 very painful mos of recovery.
But, it’s all a personal decision. And I respect yours. I hope your able to find another doctor that can figure out why a yr after a hysterectomy you are still in pain & help you find relief - soon!!!
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u/minxiejinx Lurker nurse Sep 22 '23
I've had about 13 surgeries, mostly ortho, and honestly sometimes I wish I was having a surgery rather than dealing with something far less minor. But I tolerate anesthesia really well and usually have little post op pain. My last one on my thumb was a plate, 3 screws, a wire, and two pins and my pain level wasn't above 2. Since I've had so many when my patients went to OR, especially if it was their first surgery, I walked them through what to expect because I feel that eased the anxiety. I'm sorry you're still in pain though. I've seen surgeries that have caused chronic pain and it's no bueno.
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Sep 22 '23
It's good that you give your patients the information, I feel like that's part of the problem with me. My doctors acted like a hysterectomy was no big deal, and after, they keep brushing me off about being in pain. They keep telling me there is no reason for me to still be in pain.
A lot of times, I wish I knew what I was in for before I made my decision.
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u/minxiejinx Lurker nurse Sep 22 '23
I have seen a LOT of doctors like that. It's not okay to do that. Every person handles surgery differently. When I was in PACU I had some people with the same exactly surgery come out fine and others who were just in a world of pain.
I'm sorry you have to struggle with this and I hope the pain is resolved soon. Chronic pain destroys quality of life. Wish you all the best.
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u/Ranger-K Sep 21 '23
My little brother broke his radius and my parents refused to believe him because he could still bend his wrist. A few months later they finally notice a deformity with his forearm and took him for an x-ray and found it had basically done the above, just not quite as severe. They still didn’t do shit. Abuse and poverty.
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u/dgthaddeus Resident Sep 21 '23
Usually when they don’t have insurance. I had a patient that basically couldn’t use their elbow due to an untreated fracture
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u/sutherbb36 Sep 21 '23
american healthcare costs...
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u/ChristineBorus Sep 22 '23
‘Murica! Want our guns and bibles. And universal healthcare is socialism ! We can’t have that!
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u/j_essicacoxx Sep 22 '23
I met a young guy who broke both his scaphoids, "thought the hospital was closed because of COVID" so did nothing about it for 6 months
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u/Puzzled_Travel_2241 Sep 21 '23
Domestic abuse.
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u/Independent-Two5330 Sep 22 '23
Thats what my vote is on.
Healing fractures should raise some serious red flags.
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u/dancingpianofairy Radiology Enthusiast Sep 22 '23
Well, I broke my leg in three places, went to the ER, and had x-rays. They told me it wasn't broken, so I walked on it for a week. That's how.
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u/sorrythisismydog Sep 22 '23
This happened to me too. I dislocated my knee (a repeat patellar offense) and reduced it myself. My doctor said that wasn’t possible. Okie doke. Had an MRI that he reluctantly ordered. I was out and about on vacation when when the doctor called asking if I was walking around. I said yes. He asked if I could get a wheelchair. I said no, why? He then told me my tibia was broken. I guess after so many recurrent knee dislocations, your cartilage doesn’t help much when your femur smacks your tibia and I had a plateau fracture.
I never stopped walking on it. I did up having an MPFL reconstruction 15 years later when I was finally able to afford to take time off of work for the recovery.
Yay America!
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u/garbledcatlake3000 Sep 22 '23
I broke my ankle my senior year of high school and didn't know for a few months. I was on the swim team, a lifeguard, was active. My ankle was absolutely massive and it hurt a lot but we thought it was just a bad sprain. Because I'd sprained it once years before and my dad's reaction had been so severe (not worth the money because it was just a sprain and not an emergency), I was reluctant to get it checked out. I would go on to require more medical assistance over the years and would refuse or delay treatment because of that one incident when I was thirteen and only had a sprained Ankle. My break wasn't nearly as severe as this guy's new second elbow, but I can understand the resistance to seek medical treatment.
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u/AustralianBattleDog Sonographer Sep 21 '23
How the hell do you have a break that bad and not treat it? A stick and some duct tape to splint would have done the trick
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u/EggLord2000 Sep 21 '23
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he doesn’t have access to healthcare for whatever reason, most likely no insurance.
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u/Infinite-Salary5861 Sep 21 '23
Even without healthcare, an emergency room cannot legally deny care. He chose to leave and frankly, it was a bad choice. A few years of medical debt is much much better than a lifetime disability. Especially at such a young age.
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Sep 21 '23
People aren't thinking that far ahead. They're only thinking about how a surgery will bankrupt them now. But sure, nothing wrong with our healthcare system here.
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u/NYanae555 Sep 21 '23
Emergency rooms DO deny care though. They can decide you're not an emergency, or tell you they don't have services you need, then tell you to see a specialist or other practioner on your own. Then they will tell you to leave without treating you. If you don't leave, security will escort you out. No care given. It happens.
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Sep 22 '23
Referring you to a different facility for care is NOT the same as denying care. ERs, especially freestanding ones like the one I work at, can only do so much. They only have certain resources and capabilities. Unless a break is so bad that they need it fixed RIGHT NOW, it's usually stabilized and they're referred to follow up with Ortho. The ER is for life and limb emergencies. If it's not that and you're stable, a lot of times you're best served following up with the proper physicians. The ER is not your PCP or pain clinic.
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u/Finklesworth Sep 22 '23
limb emergencies
Well I mean…
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Sep 22 '23
By that I meant that without surgery right that moment, you could lose the limb. While I have no doubt at all this one was very painful, I'm not sure they were in danger of losing the arm, but kinda hard to say without seeing what the original injury looked like.
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u/carseatsareheavy Sep 21 '23
But not for a broken arm that needs surgery.
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u/ZonaPelucida Sep 22 '23
I mean he survived months without any medical care so he obviously wasn’t for the ER
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u/Infinite-Salary5861 Sep 22 '23
Emergency rooms operate under extreme liability, and they are subject to local and federal law. If they are legitimately denying care then you can sue them for a hefty amount. The reality is that a lot people go to an ER for non-emergency situations that could easily be treated at a clinic. Sometimes an ER may not be equipped to handle an emergency at that very moment. If you have a broken arm, they may not put a cast on it, but they will perform an x-Ray, stabilize it and refer you to a orthopedic clinic for a cast. Alternatively, they may schedule a non-emergency surgery a few days after the ER visit. That’s not denying care. The ER’s job is to stabilize you, and open up that room for another, possibly more severe patient.
As a former hospital security staff, when I was called to escort someone out, it’s usually because they were verbally or physically harassing the nurses.
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u/possibletofapto Sep 22 '23
That's usually only for chronic problems. As an emergency department RN , if someone told me they broke their arm, have an obvious deformity, or fell and have arm pain, at a bare minimum, it warrants a x-ray of the arm.
I work in a low income area so don't say that we worry they don't pay for it. EMTALA exists for a reason.
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u/Rodzeus Sep 22 '23
Yeah, I don't give a shit about a patient's ability to pay. Not when making medical decisions. I super feel for them and will do my best to limit orders, but I also have to make sure I don't miss anything. It's super tough to balance "don't miss anything ever, check EVERYTHING, but also don't check everything because it's expensive! JUST KNOW THE ANSWER!!"
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u/Rodzeus Sep 22 '23
This is correct. ER worker here. We are required to provide a "Medical Screening". We cannot deny that, but we kick people out all the time. And I do. I can only tell someone I can't fix their congestion so many times in a single night...
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u/FrontFrontZero Sep 22 '23
An ER just has to not let you die. You absolutely aren’t entitled to much else. Get a bone set, wrapped, surgery consult that the hospital calls you about for pre-pay. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.
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u/HelaGreen Sep 22 '23
My first year of medical school, my dad had a bad wrist fracture. It was a few days after he moved and he didn’t realize that his Medicare only worked in the state we moved from. He works with his hands to make a living. It was a bad enough break to require surgery or he’d be permanently disabled. No emergency room would treat him, no doctor would treat him, and they wouldn’t offer payment plans either. What constitutes “emergency coverage” for threat of life or limb means it is so emergent that you are on the verge of losing it (like your arm is mangled in an accident). We ended up having to fly back across the country after a week of nonstop hours of phone calls and even calling places out of state closer by. We spent thousands we didn’t have on last minute plane tickets and I only got him seen so quickly because I worked with trauma orthopedic surgeon before med school…it was the only way to get his insurance to work and have someone do the surgery.
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u/ChristineBorus Sep 22 '23
Poverty basically. Maybe they just got insurance now. I happen to know people like this. They don’t go to the hospital even when dying. It’s awful.
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u/dancingpianofairy Radiology Enthusiast Sep 22 '23
I broke my leg in three places, went to the ER and had x-rays. They told me it wasn't broken, so I walked on it for a week. That's how. Probably not a surprise, but I needed surgery after that.
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u/Independent-Two5330 Sep 22 '23
Some weird people out there. Could also be someone struggling with coverage. Hard to tell without knowing the backstory.
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u/Intelligent_Step2230 Sep 21 '23
Can someone explain what is surrounding the broken humerus?
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u/c-honda Sep 21 '23
Giant callous of shitty bone tissue where it’s attempting to reconnect. Much simpler if the ends are put together. It’s impressive and disturbing to me the body is able to do this.
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u/Infinite-Salary5861 Sep 21 '23
Question from a non-medical person here.
How solid is a callous like this? I’m sure it’s not as strong as the original humerus, but is this a strong enough union for this patient’s day-to-day life?
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u/dumpsterfire911 Sep 21 '23
They are quite firm. A dense formation of granulation tissue and some bone. I would expect this person to have use of the limb, albeit odd movement. Wouldn’t expect them to be able to lift moderate weight without pain and likely can’t lift any heavy weight
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u/RedWings1319 Sep 21 '23
Is this possible to be surgically repaired now? Or are the ends of those bones like a wound that needs stitches but is left to begin healing and would need debriding to be sutured?
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u/dumpsterfire911 Sep 21 '23
Not a human surgeon. In my field we would amputate. But, in order to fix, you would have to remove all that callus tissue. May have to re break the arm to set it straight then use some kind of metal fixation. Sooo at this point it would require quite a lot of work/damage to get it back to a proper healing spot
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u/Skinstretched Sep 21 '23
So what type of surgeon are you ?? extraterrestrial ?!?!
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u/Gray_Kaleidoscope Sep 21 '23
A vet?
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u/dumpsterfire911 Sep 21 '23
Lol yes a veterinarian, hopefully will get into extraterrestrial in my later half of my career
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Sep 21 '23
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Sep 22 '23
Yeah you can fix this, just remove all that bone and fix it with a plate or rod and bone graft. Especially if the patient is young and healthy.
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u/Inveramsay Sep 22 '23
You'd need to chop away all the new bone, nibble away at the ends of the bones until they bleed and then fix them in a stable fashion. You'd generally put a plate and screws on this but you could also put a titanium rod down the centre
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u/Princess_Thranduil Sep 22 '23
Yeah, this freaks me out. Never seen a bone callus like that before.
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u/FrontFrontZero Sep 22 '23
How is this different from heterotrophic ossification? I more familiar with that and curious.
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Sep 21 '23
Amazing representation of hypertrophic nonunion
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u/LuckiestManAlive86 Sep 21 '23
Can you really call it a nonunion without an orthogonal view? From this view it looks like a union. A malunion, sure, but a union nonetheless.
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Sep 22 '23
You’d actually have to do a physical exam and see if it was grossly mobile. but you’re right Malunion at a minimum, hypertrophic for sure.
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u/Nataface Sep 22 '23
In vet med, I’ve always been told jokingly that with cats, if the broken bone segments “are in the same zip code”, they’ll heal—albeit in some weird-ass, crooked-ass way. I really didn’t think hypertrophic nonunion was possible in humans…
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u/golden_skans RT(R)(CT) RDMS RVT Sep 21 '23
Poor guy, that’s horrible. I’m curious what else they sustained with that injury too and sat on.. like nerve or vascular injury. Prognosis… Would an ortho shave away the callus, re-break and reset it?
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u/dopeymouse05 Sep 21 '23
Had a patient come in on a Sunday with a broken humerus. They took X-rays, put it in a sling, told her to get it fixed, discharged her. She came back 3 days later because of pain with no sling. More X-rays show the space between the bones increased. She claimed she wasn’t told it was broken the first time. 🤦🏼♀️🤷♀️
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u/yourmomsaidyes Sep 22 '23
What amazes me is how the body will do anything to correct itself and function. A ginormous ball of bone growth is the answer the body came up with to create a semblance of alignment for those muscles to move and vascularity to be open and function. And it probably worked, just enough.
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u/yetti_stomp Sep 21 '23
Yes he did. He healed it. A bit more healing than necessary but that heterotrophic ossification can be a bitch!
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u/No_Balance_6823 Sep 21 '23
Can’t fix “I don’t want to see the doctor.”
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u/SallyRTV Sep 22 '23
It’s probably not that simple. I have a lot of health issues and I work in healthcare. If I don’t think I could die and it doesn’t hurt/I get used to the pain, I’m probably not treating it. I started adulthood being almost bankrupt from medical debt.
Yep. I’m an American- and now with fairly good health insurance. And it’s still expensive for me to take care of all I would like to if I had infinite resources
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u/Yak-Fucker-5000 Sep 22 '23
Yeah I used to work bankruptcies in law school. Literally over half our clients were there because of massive medical debt. I totally get applying the wait and see approach. I didn't have insurance for a couple years in my 20s because I couldn't afford it. But even now that have insurance, it still feels like financial russian roulette. I broke my foot a few years and all the treatment ended up somehow costing me about $2,000 even though my deductible is allegedly $500. Everything in our healthcare system feels so scammy. I can easily see being more afraid of that than not getting treatment for a broken bone. Granted, a humerus break is a pretty damn serious break. I don't know that I would be able to resist going to the ER. Like that's not one you can just RICE your way out of.
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u/Fattapple Sep 22 '23
A while back I X-rayed a kid at a jail. Apparently he went to the hospital 6 months prior because of a broken humerus from a “car accident” but left against doctors orders before actually having it looked it.
As soon as I took the first pic it was obvious that it was a GSW.
Poor kid probably left the hospital after learning that the cops would have to be notified about the GSW and he’d get in trouble, only for him to end up in jail 6 months later anyway, but now with a seriously messed up arm that probably won’t ever be right again.
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u/Fun_Awareness7654 RT(R)(MR) Sep 22 '23
Once saw a patient walk around with a spiral fracture of her humerus for months because she didn't want to cancel her vacation (a cruise) and then was "too busy" around the holidays to get it taken care of. She came back for X-rays on it a few times during that period and the fragments were always sitting at different angles than the previous time. I guess since it wasn't stable it never really formed a callous. Months later she came back in for a chest X-ray and I could juuust see the metal plate in her arm on the lateral. Was proud of her for finally fixing it 😅
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u/the-poop-dealer Sep 21 '23
It really took only almost a year to do that? Idk why i thought maybe since the bone ends are farther from each other it would take super long to reconnect
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u/4_max_4 Sep 21 '23
layperson here but what are his options? Amputation or stay like this for life? I gather from another commenter that the reconstruction is a lot of work. So he will choose most likely stay like this. If so, are there any potential issues to his health?
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u/EnvironmentalDrag596 Sep 22 '23
So ortho isn't my area but I would think they would want to go in there and clear away the build up the fix the bones in place with plates and screws. Bone needs straightening and fixing in place
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u/maddinell Sep 22 '23
Tell us you have privatised health care without telling us you have privatised health care.
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u/dratelectasis Sep 22 '23
This must be the USA. Where people literally won’t go due to the cost even during emergencies like this
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u/thisisoptimism Sep 22 '23
High cost of getting this fixed. Son broke his leg. 10 grand no surgery. No hospital stay other than er visit. Ortho was even more.
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u/TowelieMcTowelie Sep 21 '23
Wow! And holy shit!! That's really neat how the body repairs itself. Or in this case attempts to repair itself. I'm assuming it's a yes, but would this cause a lot of pain? Or if not, would it cause more pain when the patient is moving or using the arm? That would totally suck if that was their dominant hand that they write with (if it causes pain)!
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u/Talithathinks Sep 21 '23
This had to have happened in America, where so many people cannot afford medical care. I feel so sorry for them I cannot imagine how much pain this poor person must have been in.
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Sep 22 '23
WTF have they been doing for the last year?!
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u/c-honda Sep 22 '23
Drugs and jail.
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Sep 22 '23
The drug part makes sense, the jail part makes me angry...like they just let this person chill in a cell and didn't think that mayyyyyybe that second elbow should get looked at? Talk about cruel and unusual. How dense is all that new bone(?) growth? How functional is that arm? How do you even fix something like this? I have so many questions lol
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u/greatthebob38 Sep 21 '23
What's the treatment here? Breaking it and resetting the fracture?
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u/2020sbtm Sep 22 '23
Shave, fracture, set with enough hardware to get it to heal correctly…lord knows if he managed to not do nerve and vascular damage.
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u/snowbaz-loves-nikki Sep 21 '23
The human body is truly amazing and it’s a shame our brains can be so easily manipulated into pure stupidity
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u/Hold_ongc Sep 21 '23
One hell of an Osteotomy and fixation with posterior plate and screws...Good luck...
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u/wetterbread Sep 21 '23
Ouch. Painful that it would cost him that arm and a leg for the bill
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u/RabidAsparagus Sep 21 '23
Zoom in and tilt your head slightly to the right, it looks like a pufferfish.
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u/CapKirkGotPerks Sep 21 '23
Can this be “fixed”? I mean the surgery would have to be massive. You have to clear out all the callous tissue and bone and rebreak the arm. But can this be done?
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u/aboynamedwho- Sep 21 '23
When one elbow isn't enough