This is my first blog but by no means the first day of this predicament. As of today, I am just two days shy of my third week of having a shattered humerus and almost zero medical treatment.
On Thursday, September 24th, 2009, I was involved in a car accident in St. Augustine, Florida. At 2:30 PM, an associate and I had just finished up lunch at a local sandwich shop and were heading to our next appointment. She was the driver and I was the navigator. We were in a residential neighborhood doing well under the speed limit (as we were looking for a house number of our client), when the driver missed a stop sign.
This is where my life was completely changed.
Next thing I know I'm hearing the screeching of tires and smashing of metal. I can't remember the impact but I do remember spinning. When the car stopped, I distinctly remember remaining braced, just waiting for another vehicle to hit us. I didn't have pain yet but I thought I was going to die. Before I knew it, I had my seatbelt off and I went to open the door... no go. My right arm wasn't doing what I was telling it to. I reached over with my other arm and opened the door.
The scene was ugly. Three vehicles, including ours, were in pieces in this intersection. People were screaming and I swear a crowd had already begun to form out of nowhere. My arm felt like it was twitching all over the place but it didn't actually appear to be moving. I had never had a broken bone before but I knew my bone was destroyed. It just hung limp.
Immediately after getting out of the vehicle, my instinct had me making sure everyone else was alright. I saw the woman in the vehicle that did not hit us get out and run in to the grass and fall down. The woman in the car that did hit us had spun 180 degrees and was facing the way it came. The woman got out of the car and ran to the back and pulled her young son. She kept moving him around and carrying him so I ran over to her and apologized out of pure instinct, knowing it wasn't my fault personally, and asked her to please lay the baby down so if anything is broken it can just stay like it is and not get any worse. She did so and I ran over to the next car.
I did whatever I could while just letting my arm dangle and then asked one of the older women standing around if they had called 911 yet. She had so all I could do was wait. I needed my associate to get my phone out of my right pocket so I could call my wife. I accidently called my mother, which is just as well, and I told her I was in a bad accident. She got my wife and daughter and started driving to the hospital out in St. Augustine.
The ambulance came and I agreed to let the first ambulance take the woman who was laying down first. I figured I must be in better shape than her. I did, however, say I did not want to be on a stretcher, so they allowed me to sit passenger in the back with the woman.
At the hospital, before I had any pain medication, before anyone asked about my arm, before anything was done at all, they had me signing agreements to pay. I couldn't believe that they had priorities so off. I understand that's just hot things go, but I couldn't believe it. The pain was starting to come in and I was getting frustrated. Nurse after nurse came through getting me to sign paper after paper and all I wanted was something for the pain. After my wife and mother showed up, they finally asked me about my arm. They got me in to x-ray, where they took only about 3 shots from the same angle, and then sent be back to the room. The nurse gave me Lortab for the pain. It did nothing.
My arm was put in to a sling that left half of my upper arm exposed (where the break was) and went way past the tips of my fingers. The nurse told me to keep my arm elevated. I tried propping it up on the table and it cause excruciating pain. I told the nurse and she said "It's going to hurt." and left.
Wow. Seriously?
They brought me in for another x-ray, I guess to make sure that everything was in the sling correctly, and then sent me back to the room. They finally let me see my x-rays and its bad. My Humerus was in 4 pieces. It looked terrible. They gave me a list of Orthopedics and told me to get calling and discharged us. The end.
I was appalled. My arm is literally in pieces and they just sent me out with a flimsy sling, a list of surgeons, and a prescription for Lortab.
The pain of my first night was amazing. Standing or sitting was like having someone pull at my broken arm and having all the pieces grind together. I am a stomach sleeper and having to sleep sitting up or on my back... well... it just didn't happen. My mother took my daughter for the night and my wife slept next to me on a mattress next to the couch. My wife had to do EVERYTHING for me, from getting me drinks to helping me go to the bathroom. It was embarrassing, but getting up was just NOT an option with the pain it caused.
The next morning, once the Lortab starting working, I was able to get up and move around a little. The aching was like a toothache but in the wrong spot. I tried putting my arm up like the nurse said to and the pain was so great that I didn't know how I was going to bring my arm back down again. The day after that, I tried again, and I watched as my humerus bent in half slightly and decided that the nurse was completely wrong in her advice. I did not elevate it again.
My father and mother had been calling everywhere in Jacksonville and St. Augustine looking for someone who would just see me without health insurance. I had car insurance that covers plenty of personal injury, but you would be surprised as to how many places just do not care. Finally, my mother found a woman who was in a similar situation a few year prior and had starting keeping a network of medical facilities who would see people without health insurance. She set us up with a walk-in clinic near by, who so far, have been the absolute greatest to me.
By this point, everyone is amazed that I did not see a doctor yet and everyone cannot believe that the first hospital just sent me out that quickly. The advice to put my arm up was wrong. With fracture as bad as mine, leaving it be is a much better idea, I was told. If anything, making my arm higher than my heart is a good idea, but the idea would be to make my heart lower than my arm by laying down, not raising my arm.
I was finally prescribed an anti-inflammatory, a muscle relaxer, and some more Lortab, and this combination is what I am still taking today. It helps immensely. The woman who I believe is in charge over there got me set up with a hospital in Jacksonville and things seemed to be moving forward. That was a whole other nightmare, but I will get in to that next time. For now, It's almost noon and I need some food in me.
-Adam Pimental
