Medical Help needed...

[DesertArchangel]

I have a character who suffers a green fracture of the leg. I need to have him in the hospital for 2 weeks. Would a green fracture require a 2 week hospital stay in traction? Any help from those with ER or Orthopedic experience woudl be greatly appreciated. TIA.

DA

[Joseph Gillis]

When you say a "green fracture" do you mean a greenstick fracture (i.e., a fracture of an immature bone)? If so, very few fractures, even greensticks, require hospitalization, particularly for two weeks. That is a very long hospital stay in today's medical reality. Now if you mean that the fracture site became infected with gangrene, thats a different story altogether, thought they'd probably lose the limb.

The only type fractures that we keep hospitalized for that long are fractures that require external fixation or bone grafting due to loss of bone during the traumatic event. Occassionally someone will have a fracture so severe that some of the bone is left at the scene of the incident. Those people usually need a serious bone graft and multiple operations, which could keep them hospitalized for two weeks or more. Trouble is, they don't exactly hop up and run around after they are discharged. It can take up to a year for them to weightbear on the affected limb.

Pleae give me more information on what kind of injury your character sustained and I'll tell you what I can about his hospital stay and post-hospital rehab program.

[DesertArchangel]

Thanks Joseph! Sorry, I thought a green fracture is where the fractured bone actually tears through the skin and is exposed.

The character is coming down a ski slope, hits a snag, and crashes. In the crash he breaks one of the big bones in the leg, hard enough to tear an artery and have the exposed bone tear through the skin.

Is this even physically possible? Not sure but it's one of my babies and I need the crash to be a life or death situation. Any input is appreciated. Thank you for your time!

DA

[Joseph Gillis]

You could easily have an open fracture of the femur that lacerates the femoral artery. Then one of two things could happen that would make it life and death.

1. The artery is bleeding out - death could happen pretty quickly that way unless someone applies pressure to the wound until they can get the patient to the hospital. And that should be ASAP.

2. The lacerated artery becomes embedded in the fracture so that moving the patient presents the risk of unembedding the artery, which could cause #1 to happen.

A patient in either situation would have an "ischemic limb", which means that they would have no blood supply to the foot. If a revascularization procedure was not performed, the foot would likely die. This patient would probably be hospitalized between one and two weeks depending upon the amount of revascularization needed and the size of the fracture.

[DesertArchangel]

Perfect. I love it when an idea pans out! Thank you for your help. You helped the dialogue in another scene as well as helping the original scene. Joseph you rock!

DA

[DorothyG]

Are you a doctor, Joseph?

[Joseph Gillis]

No, but I play one on TV.

I'm not a physician if that's what you're asking. I do medical research during the day - screenwrite at night.

[ABZ18]

My brother once fractured his leg in 8 places and 2 different bones and he required quite a bit of hospitalization although the bone didn't really get through skin.

ABZ18

[Ravenlocks01]

www.mybrokenleg.com/ (http://www.mybrokenleg.com/)