Ambulance/999- was I being unreasonable?

[NoRainbowsWithoutRain]

I’m an overthinker so I could be worrying about nothing, but I’ve been so anxious about this recently and just wanted to get an honest opinion so thought I would post here.

I was involved in a bad horse riding accident where I was thrown onto the ground from a height [the horse was jumping and had thrown a few bucks when I was thrown off] For anyone who knows about horses he’s about 16.2hands high, so pretty tall. I don’t remember much about landing apart from landing on my shoulder and thudding my head off the ground. I was lucky my friends were there to help me and they saw the entire thing and said it was a really bad fall. The last thing I remember is thinking woah why is my horse broncing?! Then boom my head and shoulder hit the ground. Then I remember lying and crying because everything hurt and my shoulder and neck were particularly sore.

An ambulance was called straight away and I was taken to a&e and got X-rays. Thankfully nothing was broken so I was discharged with a concussion and painkillers.

I feel like such a time waster because there was nothing broken! I know I didn’t know at the time, but I still feel so guilty. I think I was so full of adrenaline plus the shock of what had happened. I’m just so worried I looked like a time waster! I didn’t have any major swelling or bruising at the hospital (about 6 hours after the fall) and I’m worried I wasted everyone’s time and resources, especially as it was a particularly busy night at the hospital. It wasn’t an urgent ambulance as we had to wait a while (I’m not complaining at all about that, just trying to say it wasn’t an immediate emergency type ambulance) but I couldn’t get off the floor because my shoulder and neck hurt so much and even though I knew my neck wasn’t broken as I could move my limbs, my instructor said whenever you hit your head you should always get checked no matter what, even if you have your riding hat on like I did.

Don’t know why I’m posting this really, I just feel so guilty and worried that they’ll have thought I was a drama queen because it wasn’t broken or bruised or badly swollen (it was very bruised the next day but not the night it happened!) . Honestly, it was one of the sorest falls I’ve had! The doctor said it was probably a whiplash-type of injury causing the neck pain and a concussion as well. All the staff were seriously amazing, especially given how busy and stressful the hospital was, and I can’t stop worrying that I wasted their time

I do think therapy for anxiety is in order because you are still anxious about something that happened months ago
Why not do some fundraising for air ambulance or volunteer as as a driver to drive elderly people to their appointments?

Of course not.

Maybe give the riding a rest for a bit if you're worried about going back again

@Winter2020

Why not do some fundraising towards your cost to the NHS? Or make a private donation if you can afford it (horses aren't cheap). People often do this when they have used the services of the air ambulance or lifeboat.

Personally I think we should have to take insurance for dangerous sports (like you do on holiday if you want to be covered for skiing or going on a banana boat etc). However we don't have to so you are all good. The same rules apply to you as anyone else and your medics will have treated hundreds or even thousands of patients since you. You will be a blur in the mist of time for them I am sure. You were no more or less deserving than anyone who injured themselves through sport of which there will be many.

Seriously? Should people also take out insurance for sitting motionless on the sofa until they give themselves a heart attack too?

And FYI the air ambulance and the RNLI are funded entirely through donations. They are not centrally funded. That is why people fundraise for them. Totally different to the ambulance service.

As youd had a bad fall and couldn't get up you needed an ambulance. If youd had the same fall but had staggered to your feet then you could have gone to a&e by car but you would still need to have been checked out because you could very easily have had some breaks/sprains.

Did you know you can thank the ambulance service? If you look on their website there is an address for feedback. Maybe doing that would help relieve your unnecessary guilt?

Are there techniques you can learn to minimise the chances of injury when falling off a horse? I'd always thought you were doing well if the horse didn't roll on you.

@Rangoon Indeed there are techniques, and you can even do a course on the subject.
www.medequestrian.co.uk/rider-safety/safety/fall-training/

I think if you are attuned to your horse there is usually some warning but it's not always the case. A childhood friend of mine, a superb rider was killed when her horse toppled over backwards after rearing up. Another friend had a compound fracture of her femur after being thrown against a tree trunk when her horse was spooked by a car. And a third friend was dragged around the arena during a show after getting her foot stuck in the stirrup. Strangely none of this put me off riding at the time and I fell off numerous times but never with any injury, so perhaps I executed some techique naturally.

16.2is a fall from height. You did absolutely the right thing

Sorry haven't read everything but I am an avid "that doesn't need an ambulance" type. You definitely 100% needed an ambulance at that time because no one knew until you'd had all the tests etc if you were ok.

I could still move my arms and legs after an accident almost identical (from a lower height but still head, shoulder and back hit the ground with that almost forward roll, ending up slightly on my side).

The paramedic still sticky taped my head down to a piecce of board (before backboards were standard in ambulances) and insisted I didn't move.

About an hour later in hospital, my left leg had pins and needles, but I still felt the urge to go to the bathroom and was crying when they made me use a bedpan and wouldn't take the tape off.

Just as well, really. I had a hangman's fracture of the second cervical vertebrae. I walked out of hospital later that day in a hard collar with just a permanently numb little and ring finger/percussion side of my hand/forearm and the inability to balance on one leg without falling over sideways for about 15 years. I can do that now, but I will never, ever be able to tie a shoelace or put clothes on my lower body whilst standing.

Had I not gone to hospital, I'm told that the fracture could have opened up for a full Christopher Reeve experience.

I see that day as probably my luckiest ever in my life.

You were not unreasonable to go to hospital. You aren't just unreasonable, you are being RIDICULOUS suggesting that because you were lucky, you wasted their time at the hospital. But that's the shock. So rest up, eat loads and get back on that horse by next weekend.

This thread is actually quite irritating. Women seem to want to apologise for breathing nowadays 🙄

Of course YANBU to use the health service, whether that’s ambulance, A&E, GP. That is what it is there for. Let the professionals do their job.

You definitely needed seen by a+e. Sounds like you needed the ambulance if you were imobile too, if you could sit up, get up assisted etc, then it would have been more appropriate to be driven there.

I have done the opposite after a fall and didn't go straight to hospital- tried to carry on and hoped the pain was muscular.
Turns out I had fractures and permanent damage. The orthopaedic doctor told me to always attend after a significant horse fall even if you think you're fine. He said they'd rather be able to check

Just because you could move your limbs, does not rule out a spinal injury. And you could have had a nasty head injury.

YANBU at all. Possible head, neck and/or spinal injury. I’m sure the paramedics would much rather transport you to A&E and you’re fine than you risk moving and have a brain bleed, spinal injury or whatever.
That’s a big horse to fall off and from that height your weight hitting a solid surface is a big impact.

@NoRainbowsWithoutRain

Sorry I forgot to say in my original post, I had been to the same hospital fairly recently before for another concussion after a horse riding accident. I’ve got fantastic riding instructors and they adviced getting medical advice after a previous fall where my arms and legs got caught in the reins and stirrups and ended up getting thrown off head first (I literally bounced on my riding hat ) I called NHS24 for advice as my head was really sore and I felt sick and they advised a&e so I went and they were really nice and said it was a concussion. That was before the ambulance accident so I’m worried I seem like a time waster as it was 2 occasions where I went to a&e and nothing was broken or seriously injured!

Blimey, I’d more be worried that your fantastic riding instructors keep getting you on horses that throw you off and that ou are brave enough to keep getting back on- now imho that is unreasonable 🤣🤣🤣😳

I got taken to hospital in an ambulance after a hit and run car crash when there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. It was a fairly serious crash in that my car was written off, but thanks to my airbag I was totally fine apart from some whiplash the next day.

Someone called the police to report the hit and run, and they sent an ambulance too. They insisted on checking me over and taking me to hospital because I’d had an airbag deploy in my face and they wanted to check that it hadn’t done any damage to my head.

Point is, if I wasn’t wasting their time when I was up and walking around with no visible injuries then you definitely weren’t wasting their time lying on the floor, in pain, after falling from a height, with a concussion and a possible spinal injury!

It sounds like this didn’t even happen all that recently, though? Have you been anxious about this for a while? You really don’t need to be, but this level of worrying over something like this is exhausting and not good for you. I wonder whether you might need to address the underlying anxiety if you often find yourself going over and over things like this in your head?

YADNBU

It’s very reasonable to call an ambulance for a potential head and neck injury. If you had injured your neck, more damage might have been caused by you moving and getting yourself to hospital for x rays.

I'm a paramedic and falling from a horse unable to move because of shoulder and neck pain is definitely worthy of an ambulance and transportation to hospital. No doubt.

YADNBU - Liam Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson sadly died after banging her head in a skiing (nursery slope) accident. She refused an ambulance / hospital against advice.

I'm always the first to eye roll at some of the crap people go to hospital/call ambulances for, but this definitely isn't one of those occasions!

You needed an ambulance - and unfortunately they are well versed in coming out to horse riding accidents! They'll be relieved to know nothing was broken and wouldn't be at all bothered that they were called out to take you in. You can't always diagnose serious neck/spinal injuries that easily.

Ride safe!

You're DNBU! Maybe the whole covid thing is clouding your view as you know the emergency services are over stretched, but you needed checking over.

Before the pandemic I got bronced off and my instructor and yard owner insisted I stay on the floor and wait for the ambulance they called. After being examined by the paramedic in the back of the ambulance they didn't take me to hospital and said it was just bruising, but it still took weeks for my sacroiliac pain to subside. I felt like a time waster and fraud but 2 sensible adults who'd seen me land decided a 999 call was appropriate and the paramedics agreed it was best to err on the side of caution.

Definitely not unreasonable to get checked over. People have passed away or ended up with long-term brain damage from head injureis that they initially brushed off as minor Glad you're okay op.

*injuries

You could have potentially had a broken neck or spine.

I would call an ambulance for any bad fall from a height, horse, motorbike accident etc.

You are advised not to move until you have been properly assessed and you need medics to do that. Did they put a collar on you to get you to hospital? If so they felt caution was correct too.

I hope you recover quickly and you're not too sore.

If you feel you need to repay for the treatment you had, which you don't, I'm sure the hospital takes charitable donations.

999 call taker here. This definitely warranted a 999 call please don't worry, trust me we have a lot more minor calls than this! The mechanism of injury had the potential to cause serious damage! We'd have classed this as a major trauma and it would have been an emergency ambulance response, all ambulance services are extremely busy at the moment which is why there would have been a delay! Hope youre feeling better

In no way were you being a drama queen. I just wish, so wish, that Natasha Richardson had been a drama queen and perhaps with a slim possibility she might still be here today when she had her terrible skiiing accident and didn't go to hospital to be checked out immediately after the accident and by the time she did it was too late.
(just seeing your post above this one @iklboo)

NEVER think you're being a drama queen if you have an accident involving horses. 16 hands is a very tall horse and if you were to fall off a ladder doing DIY from a similar height you wouldn't be a drama queen either.