Most serious injury you have ever had in your life?

[DionneB]

Three come to mind for me

I have twice broke my arm

I have 5 times sprained my ankle

Also a small burn due to boilling water dropping on me

Somebody pulled across in front of my car on an A road causing a 60 mph collision. My poor left boob acted like an auxiliary airbag and took most of the impact, saving my life but leading to some very painful and impressive bruising followed by the formation of a clot and then fat necrosis which has left me with a trench across my breast. Still, I don't get them out that often these days, and I'm lucky to still be here to type about it.

Without going into the gory details:
Serious explosion, resulting in some nasty burns, a shattered right hip, a broken left femur, pretty nasty cuts, bruises and shrapnel injuries to my arms and torso, and a collapsed left lung.
Still amazes me to this day that I didn’t break any bones in my arms, and only cracked a few ribs!
Both of my legs/hip were patched up amazingly and I’ve had few ongoing consequences of the injuries

I broke my right arm between the elbow and wrist. It was hanging off. I had snapped both my radius and ulna, and my ulna was sticking out through the skin.

That was three years ago. It was put back together using two metal plates, internal bonding and stitching and quite a lot of screws, all of which are still there and likely to remain so. I can feel the plates occasionally.

Fractured femur aged 6, hit by a car. Was quite a clean break until the driver picked me up off the road and carried me to the pavement, that complicated things quite a bit! Don't remember much apart from pleading with the ambulance staff not to cut my jeans off, they were only a few weeks old and had a womble patch on them, by far the coolest thing I had ever owned...

The one I did last July when I fell down the stairs: a full tear to the supraspinatus tendon in my shoulder. I'm on the waiting list for repair surgery.

Tri-malleolar fracture of R ankle. Happened about 1/2 mile out on the geyser trail at Yellowstone National Park in the dead of winter. Roads closed to wheeled vehicles.

I was wheeled back to to the lodge over ice-covered raised paths on a one-wheeled gurney (like a gurney on a unicycle!), med-evac'd in a mattrack vehicle over an ice-road (about 90 minutes) to the nearest town, then in a regular wheeled ambulance to the nearest hospital (about 3 hours) over a paved but icy road. Had surgery, then 48 hours later, made a 18 hour journey, leg immobilized, in the back seat of a Prius home. Thank God for modern pain meds!

I stopped counting how many times I had sprained my ankle by the time I was 14. It was already upwards of 8.

I managed to rip all the muscles in my upper left back about 10 year ago- I couldn't do anything for the first week, including lie down to sleep. I had to sleep upright on the sofa. It took about 3 months for full mobility to be back.

About 18 months ago I tore my rotator cuff in my right shoulder and then damaged it more and damaged when I was nearly recovered, due to an arsehole of a customer forcing me into a shelving unit at work.

And last March, on the first day of the heavy snows I was helping my DH put the ice shield on the car and somehow he managed to slam the car door on my head- I initially wasn't going to go to hospital but it was still bleeding nearly an hour later so called a taxi. I was superglued back together and ended up with a deep scar and 2 black eyes.

Numerous small burns and scalds- once ironed my stomach when rushing to get a work shirt done in a hurry. Also tried to catch a falling hot frying pan of bacon by the pan rather than the handle.

Herniated disc at L5/S1

Broken wrist

Broken thumb

Sprained each too which hurt a lot more than the breaks.

Not wanting to tempt fate but I've never had a really serious injury or illness.
I managed to stab myself in the hand once, which ended with a few stitches.
And my mother accidentally dropped me into a pan of boiling water when I was 6 months. I still have the scars where the elastic from my cardi was.

Same as @Impicciona the worst time of my life. I've never broken a bone though.

Nothing as impressive as PP!

Fractured skull and broken wrist as a teenager. Realised recently that I had petit mal seizures for a year or so afterwards - didn’t know what was wrong with me at the time and I had no one to tell. Walked around for days with the broken wrist as no one believed me - despite being in hospital for the head injury.

Chipped elbow bone later teen.

Broken arm at 20 that was left unset (I didn’t realise it was as bad as it was and didn’t want to get my then boyfriend into trouble). It’s all calcified and beyond repair so my lower arm can’t turn at the elbow, which is a nuisance.

PTSD for over a decade thanks to ex husband.

Broken foot after I dropped a paving slab on it.

Feeling very lucky as I read this. No sprains, no broken bones, no cuts, no stitches. No major illnesses either.

Hope you're all well recovered and not suffering too many long term effects

All those that had cause equina how was your recovery?

Slipped disc and being run over by a bus and cracking my head open. Slipped disc was far worse!!

Birth injury from rotational forceps and episiotomy. Luckily was not left incontinent like PP but it was painful for a long time and left me with a deep scar and nasty gashes/head trauma for DS.
Amazingly since I am known for being clumsy I have never broken, fractured or burned anything!

Herniated disc which was operated on you ore and permanently damaged my sciatic nerve so I can no longer Have a full range of movement in my left leg.

Forceps leading to damage that still hasn’t healed 12 years later. I have to take pin killers every day and feel like a horse has kicked me between the legs.

Broken ankle requiring screws.

I’d do anything to have a robust injury free body. It’s the greatest gift you can ever receive and if you have one cherish it, protect it and don’t take it for granted.

I had a go cart accident when I was 17 in which I tore all the tendons on the left side of my neck. I was young and stupid and refused to go to the hospital, instead I sat on a train from Cumbria to London to get back home for my driving test the next day. Unsurprisingly I failed as I physically could not move my head. I spent years in physio trying to fix it.

But over all I’m clearly very lucky that that is the worst injury that I can remember having

Every rib broken in several places - only learnt of this when I was pregnant and suffered badly - from being stamped upon as a toddler.
Along with a broken nose - from being punched in the face as a toddler.

@howhowhow my surgeon said I was the most wilful stubborn patient he had and I needed tying down
Woke up from op at 4pm, walking to the toilet by 5pm and eating the entire catering trolley at 6pm. I can't sleep after a GA so was wired all night, and discharged at lunchtime the next day
8 weeks of no lifting, twisting or bending and I was home alone. Started physio at 8 weeks, back on my horse and doing rehab in the gym at about 9 weeks

I fell down the stairs and tore all the ligaments in my foot. It ballooned. Found out years later I'd actually broken it when I had an X-ray after falling off a ladder and they noticed the old break. Was walking on it a week later and no one believe it was that bad even thought my foot had no definition from ankle to toe!

Broke all the fingers on my left hand in several places, sledging. Aged 30. Completely sober.

Weirdly not particularly painful, thought I’d just bruised my hand a bit and only realised when I got home, removed my gloves and my left hand had swollen to three times the size of the right one.

Picked up freshly welded steel with my bare hand. Still have nerve damage in my fingertips 20years later

My friend (who is basically Ironman) broke his ankle and fractured his kneecap whilst we were running a mountain ultramarathon together, somewhere around mile 18. He completed the remaining 10 miles with the injuries and barely a whimper.

I put my back into spasm very badly at work. Two days off work, two weeks of being utterly dependent on three different painkillers, about three months to get my flexibility back. And it still twinges now, nearly a year on.

And what did I do to cause all this faff? I walked round a corner.

Badly sprained ankle at school still aches continually 40 plus years after
broke every finger and toe
dislocated shoulder walked round for a week before a dr pointed it out to me i was in hospital at time and need a ga in end to reset it
broken ribs one time when i wished i did not have to breathe move or cough