Broken bones (not for the squeamish)

I don't remember hearing my fingers break, but I heard my humerus. It sounded like the crack of a wood baseball bat -- but without the reverb of a ballpark.

I just realized that was 30 years ago, & I can still remember hearing it like it was yesterday. It was a bad break, though -- the bone bent & I spent 2 weeks in traction trying to straighten it out. It sort of worked, unless I try to touch my left shoulder w/my left thumb I never notice that it didn't. I walked almost all the way home before I had to sit on the curb. What a little badass I was then.

Damnit, now I'm queasy!

I never broke a bone.

But if you need any info on lacerations, severed nerves or small amputations let me know.

Break a chicken leg bone in half.

Sounds like a wet crack.

Personally, I wouldn't know, because I have never broken bone. Came close once though.

Did you hear something?

Ankle, knee, several ribs, most of my fingers, wrist, collarbone, compacted vertabre (could have been paralyzed)... Not all at once mind you, this test of the envelope took many decades to accomplish. Football, Military training, Mt. Biking, Motorcycling (Accidents on both street and dirt), Train hopping, Mt. Climbing... Tell you what, if there's a way for accidental self mutilation, I think I've tried it!

Strangely, in most cases there was a disenfranchised feeling that occured to me just seconds prior to the event. This made some of these events seem unreal - like they were happen to someone else and I was just a by-stander. Then the snap! Yes, like a wood bat breaking - a perfect analogy! That first moment of shock (wait, I'm no by-stander!), then it hits you, a wave of pain instantly flooding every nerve in your body. Like they were gasoline, and you just struck a match - whoosh! To me, maybe because of my own injuries, hearing someone else getting a break always leaves a sickening feeling in my stomach. Sort of an empathy thing, like I know what they are now going through, and I can feel that whooosh of pain flooding over me again. That may be why you see trained people like paramedics "tossing their cookies" on the first run to an emergency (like a traffic accident with major injuries involved). The "empathy" can overwhelm your own senses. You can get used to the feeling, so you don't toss your cookies every time, but you still 'feel' their pain.

"I feel your pain..." man, that's just sound wrong now, thanks Bubba!

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Islaitha Frost said:

Break a chicken leg bone in half.

Sounds like a wet crack.

Personally, I wouldn't know, because I have never broken bone. Came close once though.

Click to expand...

Sorry, no, not the same. Chicken bones are, by design, too weak to simulate the break of a human (or other large, weight baring animal).

the "wet crack" is due to the 'hollowness' of avian bones. They have to be light in order for the birds to fly. If you could find a mammilian bone to break, first you'll discover just how much pressure it actually take to break a bone. Second, a bone removed from its 'meat' also wouldn't have the same muffled like sound. The reason the bat analogy works is because the sound is created by the 'meat' of the ball crashing into and shattering the wood bat... or so I would guess.

Hope this helps...

PS The Rooster came first... Duh!

When I was 12, I was in an accident that shattered part of my upper jaw and my nose. It also busted apart the skin between my upper lip and the bottom of my nose. I lost teeth that hadn't even come in yet, and my jaw still has a dip in it that I cover with false teeth. Some of the tissue of my face disconnected from my skull and had to be sewn back in place.

I still have a small scar and a slightly crooked nose, despite reconstructive surgery.

I didn't hear it because the impact was sudden and knocked me unconcious.

When I woke up, I was in shock. It took me several seconds to remember that breathing was necessary. My thoughts were incredibly detached and logical. I just laid there, staring up at my horse for a moment. Then I Oh, yeah, I need to breathe. Next thought: I better spit out whatever's blocking my throat if I want to breathe. I did so, and saw blood, tissue and teeth. Damn, that sucks. Then I thought better catch the horse and put her away. I caught my horse, got on her, took her back to the barn and took off all her tack, then started walking home. I was almost to the door and suddenly, I felt strange, and scared...it was the first time that I felt fear, and I still didn't feel pain.

I tried to tell my mom that I didn't want to see a mirror - I knew that seeing the injury might freak me out or make me feel the pain more - but my face was so blasted that my mom couldn't understand what I was saying.

We didn't have a car with us, so a neighbor arrived to take us to the hospital, but he had his granddaughter with him. She stared at me in mute horror. At this point, amnesia set in. I told the little girl that I was OK, and it didn't hurt, then turned to my mother and asked "What happened?" Before she could respond, I told the little girl that I was OK, then asked again. I did this all the way to the hospital without realizing that I was repeating myself. It was surprising how little blood there was at this point. Almost none.

Anyway, I'm including all this because what I was experiencing is common to extreme bodily trauma...it's shock. The injured character, if they are injured severely enough, may experience shock...in which case, their actions and thoughts may not be what would normally be expected, and they may suffer amnesia. In my case, the amnesia had a definite, sudden onset and I forgot the entire traumatic event, all the way up to the present moment, every 20 seconds or so. After about 30 minutes, I remembered the details of what happened just prior to the accident and arriving at my house after the accident. It took me years to remember the whole event.


PS - That was a darn good horse. We were attacked by dogs, and she reared unexpectedly. The back of her neck shattered my face and knocked me out. When I woke up, she had fought off all the dogs and was standing over me protectively. When I reached for her, my hands were bloody, and she shied away but let me catch her, and when I slung myself over her saddle, she carried me gently home. She even followed me back to my house on the other side of the fence, watching me like a mother hen. So yeah, I still love horses.

When one of my fingers was broken it was a pretty loud-sounding crackle; even though it took a few seconds for it to hurt, the sound was so definitive I knew just from that that I'd broken it.

I think Mr. Fix should be called Mr. Lucky, what with surviving all those broken bones.

Monkey's tale makes me squirm. Nothing like skin detaching from bone to get the creep factor going.

I broke a rib and a toe within the last year and a half. For the rib, I landed hard on my back on some concrete and I clearly heard the crack.

Same with my toe. I had something hit it and it popped like a knuckle bone being popped.

The rib, I didn't notice at first because I had the air whoomped out of me. When I tried to stand up, it hit me like a train.

The toe, didn't notice it at first either. I thought it was something else. Then I put my weight on it and Aye Carumba!

Both times, others in the area heard the pops/cracks.

Fun and games.

I saw a deer that'd been hit by a car try to walk on cracked legs . . . the legs actually twisted and broke further when it tried to get up. The sound could probably be best described as breaking a stick wrapped in meat--sort of a muffled pop.

There was no sound when I broke my toes in Judo, but I did get a little crack--more a feeling than a sound--when I re-set them.

I have had various skiers and snowboarders report that they heard and felt the break.

I broke my right wrist when I was thrown from my horse. The wrist hit the top of a fence and made a crunching sound. I didn't feel any initial pain and I didn't realize the crunching sound had come from my wrist. I stood up from where I had been thrown, and began walking to my horse. A few steps and I became dizzy and fell to my knees. That's when I noticed the bone behind my wrist was "crooked" and swelling fast. That's also when the pain hit and it brought me to tears, mixed with many four letters words and incoherent ramblings about horses and dog food.

Because my break was a "green tree fracture", it crunched. I would think a clean break would be more of a cracking sound.

When the cast was removed some weeks later, I fainted. Apparently, this is not unusual when a cast is removed and blood rushes back into the healed area.

"It's good to know, or not so good, that others are able to hear it."

Were they talking about their own broken bones? It makes sense one would hear one's own, but would you hear another's? Or would it depend on the type of break?

Oh, yuck. I'm getting mental images.

Yes, you can hear someone else's bones break. I have also had bystanders or friends of a downed snowboarder tell me "we hears something go 'crack' so we think he broke it". They are often right.

I had to use a nasty self-defense move once and I not only heard, but felt, the crunch of the attacker's leg bones breaking.

edited because I can't type!

Have you ever broken a bone or two, or ten?
I've broken my arm twice, in the exact same place! both very bad fractures, nearly compond.

Did you hear it break? Did anyone else?
No...the breaking was more of a dull thud that shook through me--I 'felt' the break, but I do not remember any outward sound whatsoever.


If so, what did it sound like?
See above. I do remember the feeling--the first feeling is like someone is standing on your arm--it's a lot of pressure as the muscles contract and swell. The pain doesnt settle in for a few minutes, during which is feels like a migraine in the broken area.

Goodluck!

I was at a football game a few years ago and one of the players broke a leg in two places. It sounded like two gunshots.

I've broken a shoulder and shattered a wrist. I was not aware of any noise when the bones broke, but a heck of a lot of sudden pain.

How many bones have I broken? Far too many. Different breaks have made different sounds. The collar bone was sort of a meaty, muffled pop. Fingers make a sharp crack. My vertebrae were more of a crunching sound.

I suppose that fingers crack more because of small bones and not much flesh around them to muffle the sounds. My collar bone break was a much more muffled pop. Probably because there was more meat around the area.

Owwwww! I didn't hear my neck break because I was unconscious but I did hear my hubby's finger break when he hit it with the hammer (it was louder than the hammer strike). It was a very clear, sharp snap.

Yes

Yes, you can hear someone else's bone break.

My sister broke several bones as a child. When she was in second grade she was running in the backyard and a kid from the neighborhood stuck his foot out to trip her. She fell, and I heard the bone in her arm break. I was standing at least 8 feet away. It sounded like a small tree limb snapping -- that same sharp, crunching sound.

I've never been around when anyone else sustained a broken bone, so I can't verify whether or not that sound could be heard by a bystander.

At various times, I've broken some toes, my right wrist (in which case my wrist was also dislocated - quite ugly and frightening), my left elbow, several ribs, and a left ankle for which I didn't seek treatment - but that still does a lot of cracking, popping, and slipping out of the socket which results in my falling.

I clearly heard the breaks that varied in sounds from crisp snaps to loud cracks. But, depending upon the causes of some of the broken ribs, some of the sounds were more like crushing gravel along with the snap. With each break, there was a definite realization and dread, a "blackness" before my eyes, a fleeting feeling of nausea, and, in one instance, complete unconsciousness. With the rib breaks, there was a feeling of not being able to breathe for a few seconds, because of the lung and rib proximity. Breathe = Pain. Each time, there was a period of numbness before the pain set in. I went into shock only once - the day after the broken wrist. Nasty stuff - shock. With the first broken bone, I was given a pain killer that caused more adverse side effects than the reality of just dealing with the pain, so, after having taken one pill, I decided to "deal with it" and didn't take any more.

Good luck with your MC's experience when using any of the descriptions you've received.