Injury List

So, what you’re about to read took me a couple of weeks after my accident for me to finally get a brief list from my doctors. It was surreal, lying in the hospital, waking up one day, and wondering, “what the heck happened to me? and why can’t I feel my legs?” also, “why am I in so much pain? why’s it hurt to breathe??”

I had so many questions, and all I could see is my mother sitting on the room side with me. it was truly an experience I will never forget. I can’t understand how this all happened.

It took the attending doctors a bit until they were able to get me a list with all the injuries, and even then, I didn’t understand them all. I had to do a lot of research into what the heck any of these large words could even mean.

It was a lot for me to process, in the hospital bed, with barely enough strength left to even lift my head. I can only imagine this is going to be a lot for anyone to take in. Just remember that I am still alive to this day.

My sister had told me one day she was speaking to a friend who is an ER doctor in Chicago about my injuries, I shared with her the list. he said to her, “he’s lucky to be alive”. I truly am. this was so much to have happened, it pains me to even write all of this. This was just one of many things I had to work through to try and understand my situation, and work through all that had happened to me.

If you made it this far, I describe below what the heck happened to me. It may or may not make any sense, but It was definitely an earful for me to take in as well. Thanks for reading this far.

Right Lung

• Right Lung hemopneumothorax
• contusion with R posterior lateral thoracotomy
• RUL and RLL lobectomy

Left Lung

• Pneumothorax

Spinal Cord

• T2 TP fracture
• T7 3 column injury and burst fracture
• L3 with 3 column posterior displacement
• Costovertebral joint fractures with dislocations from T7-L5 (10 ribs/vertebrae)
• Cauda Equina Injury

Brain

• Subdural Hemorrhage
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Diffuse axonal injury

Ribs

• Bilateral Rib fractures
  • Left: 1,4-7,9-10
  • Right: 1-8

Liver Laceration

Spleen Laceration

Definitions:

• Hemopneumothorax, or haemopneumothorax, is the condition of having both air (pneumothorax) and blood (hemothorax) in the chest cavity.
• A thoracotomy is a surgical procedure in which a cut is made between the ribs to see and reach the lungs or other organs in the chest or thorax.
• A lobectomy is a surgical procedure where an entire lobe of your lung is removed
• Pneumothorax is a collapsed lung
• What is a transverse process (TP) fracture? This fracture is a break or crack in one of the wing-like sides at the back of a vertebra.
• A burst fracture is an injury in which the vertebra, the primary bone of the spine, breaks in multiple directions.
• displacement develops when a disc in the spinal column shifts from its original position and presses against the spinal nerves
• The costovertebral joints are arthrodial joints connecting the head of the ribs with the bodies of the thoracic vertebrae
• The cauda equina is a group of nerves and nerve roots stemming from the distal end of the spinal cord, typically levels L1-L5 and contains axons of nerves that give both motor and sensory innervation to the legs, bladder, anus, and perineum.
• A subdural haematoma is a serious condition where blood collects between the skull and the surface of the brain.
• A subarachnoid hemorrhage means that there is bleeding in the space that surrounds the brain.
• Diffuse axonal injury is the shearing (tearing) of the brain’s long connecting nerve fibers (axons) that happens when the brain is injured as it shifts and rotates inside the bony skull. DAI usually causes coma and injury to many different parts of the brain.