Injuries associated with car accidents and treatment

Several years ago a friend and I were involved in an accident and he was taken to the hospital via ambulance while I walked away fine. I don't know what order his tests were done in, but when I got to the hospital, I was able to see him right away. The took me back to the curtain where he was waiting (strapped to a bad because of possible neck/ back injury) to be taken to the next test.

Around here the brother would be able to see him immediately if he's conscious and stable.

With a car whose bumper is about shin level, I'd expect a fracture or break of his fibula, depending on how fast the car was going when it hit him. For taller cars, same story, but for the femur. Damage to the pelvis is less likely, but a fracture is possible. His wrist, hand or forearm might also sustain some injury - once when he folds over and hits the bonnet, and once when he flies back and hits the floor. Similarly, head injury is a possibility if he gets hit hard enough that he can't catch himself before his head meets the bonnet. A complete up-and-over is possible, depending on the speed, shape and height of the front end of the car. As for internal injuries, massive bruising is the obvious thing, and if he's hit from the side, it's possible his kidneys would take a knock.

Procedures would be similar in almost all cases: probably a neck brace and/or complete spine board, depending on severity of apparent injury and whether he was conscious on arrival. Any major bleeding would be bandaged at the scene, just to get him stable enough to move. On arrival, x-rays would be taken to find out what's broken, and things like CT or MRI scans if the doctors suspect bleeds in problematic places like the brain, or there's organ damage that they're having trouble locating. Surgery to pin broken bones can wait a little if the break is clean, but is best done as soon as possible. If bone fragments have come adrift or if the bone has a sharp end that's endangering tissues or organs then the surgery is more urgent and will likely be done immediately. Major bleeds will also get him moved straight to theatre so that the surgeons can locate and stop the bleeding.

What does your story need?

You can have anything from walking away with some bruises to dead. Once you get over 10 mph or so, anything can happen.

There should be several videos of police officers being struck by cars that were shot on their dash cams. Some of them involve a significant amount of force. Injuries are not predictable here.

You give me the level of injuries you want, and I probably can give you a good version of how it is likely to happen.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I was in an accident of this type, at fairly low speeds. My injuries were very minor. I'll describe below if that's useful for you.

I didn't injure my legs at all (well, at muffler height on the side of me that had faced the car, which in that case was a little below my knee, I did get a nice band of bruising, but that didn't show up right away). I did have a concussion and a torn rotator cuff from hitting the ground. The person I was with flipped over the hood and landed on his feet, and was uninjured (not counting some minor bruises and soreness). I also scraped the top part of my face (forehead and around the eye) and was bleeding from that (scalp wounds can look scary without actually being serious). When my friend arrived at the hospital, he was allowed to go straight back to wait with me. A nurse, an intern, and a doctor all very quickly came to evaluate the head injury, but as it was clearly not serious there was then a very long wait before an intern came back, re-evaluated my head and level of consciousness, cleaned up the cut and let me go. I also got a tetanus shot and was advised that more of my body might start to hurt later and that I should follow up with my own doctor. In fact, my head hurt so much and I had so much adrenaline going that my shoulder did not begin to hurt until the next day.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

If your MC hits his head, especially if he falls backward, he could develop balance problems. It's not life-threatening, and usually goes away in time, but would require a period of dependence.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Okay, here's a good one for you. Have the driver slowing down and swerving a bit. Car catches your guy with the passenger side mirror. Depending upon the car (lower is better here, a pickup truck will not work), the mirror is at the right height to hit the femur (thigh). Very strong bone, but this sort of impact could fracture it. In other words, the collision is an almost miss, but not quite.

Femur fractures were 90% fatal in WWI, so you've got what's still a serious injury. Massive amounts of pain until you're splinted. And a good stay in the hospital (at least several days, and then more of rehab). There are some better people on this forum for the post-op from a femur fracture, but it will give you exactly what you want.

If you really want to lay your guy up, combine the femur fracture with a hip fracture.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

alegory said:

I'm not sure how much detail I'll need but, just in case, have you got any ideas who might know that sort of thing?

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I'd ask GeorgeK and sheadakota.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I highly recommend the book Body Trauma by Dr. David W. Page. It is an excellent book that not only gives you the gory details about the injuries but also their treatments.
Dr. Page also collaberated with Dr. Keith Wilson to write a book called Code Blue A Writer's Guide to Hospitals which you may find extremely useful as well ( I know I have found both books very useful).
These are the best books around concerning body trauma and hospital procedure.
Hope that helps.

jclarkdawe said:

I'd ask GeorgeK and sheadakota.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

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sheadakota is a medical genius not to mention a very sweet and helpful person.

alegory said:

Wow, thanks for those two titles, Jack. I've wanted something similar for a while now (I think I'm a bit cruel to my characters- a lot of them seem to end up in hospital! ) but had no idea what to look for. I tried using some of my mum's nurses training books as reference points but found that I just couldn't understand most of what they were telling me because they were aimed at people who already had a good degree of knowledge on the subject and I have next to nothing. So I've just purchased a copy of each of your suggestions- hopefully they'll be as usueful to me as they are to you.


Always good to know I'm not going to have my head bitten off if I ask questions!

Thanks again.

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ALegory believe me those two books will become a right arm to you, they have to me. I, too, am a major whumper. I whump my charaters pretty good sometimes. I too made the mistake of using medical books up until one day I was shopping on Amazon and those 2 books popped up in the suggestions and now they are at my side all the time.
Sheadakota is a real sweetheart and very patient. I put that poor dear to the test and I'm still alive She has a HUGE brain and an even bigger heart.

alegory said:

I've got a feeling you're going to be proved right... And if all else fails, at the very least, I'm sure they'll satisfy my own morbid curiosities!

I may well drop her some questions later on today. Just need to figure what exactly I need to know, first... I think I need to stop procrastinating, get off AW and open up my story

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Yes I agree. I'd like to read it when its done cause it sounds like its gonna be a good one.
Well those books served mine alright. I got them thinking I'd just use them as a referrence books but I wound up reading them cover to cover! They help with learni8ng what to expect in real life when you know what happens.

I would consider what the setting was. What type of street is he walking down? This can make a big deference because if he is in a naighborhood speed limits on resedential streets are generally 25mph. This will figure in by the speed thedriver was doing before he started slowing down. This can be the difference in major to minor if any injury. Did he see the car? Does he freeze? His reaction can determine where he is hit, a person expecting an impact instead of jumping from the path brace for impact by jumping up and backgiving hood and windshield impact. Is he on a bike? His leg is likely to be damaged fron either leg between car and bike, or sticking his legout to absorb impact. A helpful source here could also be to know in your head exactly what type of car you want to hit him, then look up braking results for that model. This will show you exactly how many feet it took for the car to come to a complete stop. which can in your head give you distane to describe the event even further. Hope that was helpful.

Also not to spoil fun but mirrors cannot absorb that force in an impact. This is from recent personal frustrating experiance. About two months ago backing out of my driveway in my Magnum my mirror hit my rubber garbage can on the curb. I was only doing about 3mph and my entire mirror came out of the socket stripping the three tiny bolts that hold them in.

Your femur is one of the strongest bones in your body if not the strongest. Medical professional would liken it to a concrete pillar. So a more likely break could be in the foot with literally dozens of small bones, or one of the bones in the lower part of the leg. You could have a break in a leg/foot combined with a shoulder/arm/wrist preventing mobility with crutches, or being independent in a wheel chair.

aspiring great said:

Also not to spoil fun but mirrors cannot absorb that force in an impact. This is from recent personal frustrating experiance. About two months ago backing out of my driveway in my Magnum my mirror hit my rubber garbage can on the curb. I was only doing about 3mph and my entire mirror came out of the socket stripping the three tiny bolts that hold them in.

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You're right. This can happen. Then again, I represented a guy charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, for breaking his ex's new boyfriend's femur with the mirror on his car as he aimed at him. The fact he didn't hit him head-on was more a testament to the fact he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with a shotgun.

And I heard from an EMT who had the same type of injury that he responded to, with a severely injured thigh and a ruptured knee.

In theory, the mirrors are designed now to fold back when they hit something, although leaving a significant bulge. It may be that the actual cause of the injury is a door handle or just rolling along the side of the car. As an EMT I've seen a long scar in the dirt of a car which slid on its side, from the mirror.

It really depends upon some luck, but the range here is great for an author. The mirror can fly off like it did for you, or it can do a lot of damage. All sorts of things you can do with this.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

If the mirror thing isn't working smoothly, another option might be to have something in the road he could land on wrong. A curb, rough paving, some random trash... Assuming he isn't being run over, he'd be thrown to the ground with a lot of force, and could either land badly and break whatever you want that way, or be thrown into something and break his femur.

alegory said:

For real? I think you're the first person that's ever said that- cue ridiculous smiling on alegory's part ;P


Wow, thanks for all the pointers! I've written the scene in rough but it's still open to modification. I've set it on a residential street but the injury, I think, is more important than the setting- he's walking back to his brother's house from across town so, really, it could happen anywhere within reason.

He stumbles into the road (kind of backing away from something) so he doesn't see the car coming but the car sees him because he's unintentionally drawn attention to himself by acting weirdly. And no, there's no bike. Just him and his self-pity

And interesting point about the wing-mirror. We had our own wing mirror broken off a few months back (there were no marks on the body of the car so we can only imagine it was kids being stupid rather than a car driving past too close and the force there couldn't have been too huge either) and, like yours, the mechanism inside was totally screwed. But, considering Jim's experience where injuries have been caused by a wing-mirror, I think I might go with that idea anyway... I like the concept of it and can see how it could work and the injuries Jim described are exactly what I'm after in this situation. But I do appreciate your input because it's definitely worth thinking about.


I have to say, that freedom is one of my favourite things about writing...


That's a good point too... I'm still looking into all this. Luckily, I don't think specifics need to come in for at least another chapter or so, so I can think a bit more and not have to stoop writing while I figure it out.

Thanks, guys, and apologies for this megapost!

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Yes I'm serious. I love to write and i LOVE to read.

It looks good on ya