The Broken Bone Game

SinRopa wrote:

Compression fracture of L4-L5.  Big ol' IED flipped my GMV into a wadi.  I get an anti-inflammatory steroid shot back there every 8 months or so and I'm 100%.

Compression fracture of C3.  Parachute landing gone wrong.  It healed pretty well on its own.

My warm welcome to Iraq was having an uparmored lmtv roll on top of me while I was in the gunner hatch. Lucky for me the TC and driver grabbed my legs and pulled me in so I only ended up with my face in the mud and not under the truck. This was my very first mission in Iraq. My back has never been the same after that. The next few deployments jut made it worse too. Lucky for me nothing broke just some messed up disks and nerve damage. 

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

Ouch! That seems like something someone should warn you about... I haven't been cliff diving much, but I tend to default to a big ass jump.

Right!  You would think jumping further is better, apparently that is not always the case.

Do animal breaks count? My doggie got a big boo boo this summer. She is doing much better now. We found out the hard way that dog seatbelts do not work.

Bouldering accident in Joe's Valley, UT in October 2017. The top-out hold broke off in my hands, and I went straight to the ground. It was my warmup climb ("Ankle Deep in Gasoline" (V2)) and I was not expecting to fall, so when the hold crumbled at the top, I was surprised, and I hadn't taken any particular care placing crash pads for the landing. I missed the pad, & all the force went into my right leg. I broke my fibula, cuboid, talus, and 3rd metatarsal. I've had two surgeries already, with about 10 screws and a metal plate added in, and lots of shattered bone fragments removed. No weight bearing for 3 months! Ugh! Doc says I could maybe sport climb in about a year. Likely no more bouldering/crack climbing for me. Be safe out there!

Fallon Rowe wrote:

Bouldering accident in Joe's Valley, UT in October 2017. The top-out hold broke off in my hands, and I went straight to the ground. It was my warmup climb ("Ankle Deep in Gasoline" (V2)) and I was not expecting to fall, so when the hold crumbled at the top, I was surprised, and I hadn't taken any particular care placing crash pads for the landing. I missed the pad, & all the force went into my right leg. I broke my fibula, cuboid, talus, and 3rd metatarsal. I've had two surgeries already, with about 10 screws and a metal plate added in, and lots of shattered bone fragments removed. No weight bearing for 3 months! Ugh! Doc says I could maybe sport climb in about a year. Likely no more bouldering/crack climbing for me. Be safe out there!

Bouldering...Everytime. It’s not that we hate bouldering; but is it really worth the risk?  (My Opinion). Hope you heal up well and can at least get some turns in this season. If not hope to you make it to the rocks this spring/summer. 

Fallon Rowe wrote:

Bouldering accident in Joe's Valley, UT in October 2017. The top-out hold broke off in my hands, and I went straight to the ground. It was my warmup climb ("Ankle Deep in Gasoline" (V2)) and I was not expecting to fall, so when the hold crumbled at the top, I was surprised, and I hadn't taken any particular care placing crash pads for the landing. I missed the pad, & all the force went into my right leg. I broke my fibula, cuboid, talus, and 3rd metatarsal. I've had two surgeries already, with about 10 screws and a metal plate added in, and lots of shattered bone fragments removed. No weight bearing for 3 months! Ugh! Doc says I could maybe sport climb in about a year. Likely no more bouldering/crack climbing for me. Be safe out there!

Sounds gnarly! I wouldn't give up on crack or anything for that matter because a doctor says you can't. If you really want crack you can have it with hard work and PT.

Sincerely, a crack addict. 

C2, T4, T5, T6

Climbing on the roof of a house...so i guess its kinda like climbing

BrokenChairs BrettC wrote:

Bouldering...Everytime. It’s not that we hate bouldering; but is it really worth the risk?  (My Opinion). Hope you heal up well and can at least get some turns in this season. If not hope to you make it to the rocks this spring/summer. 

Thank you so much! I've never been much of a boulderer anyway, and I've had lots of time to think about the risk since the accident... It's a weird game we all play, isn't it? Looking forward to climbing again next year!

grog m aka Greg McKee wrote:

Sounds gnarly! I wouldn't give up on crack or anything for that matter because a doctor says you can't. If you really want crack you can have it with hard work and PT.

Sincerely, a crack addict. 

That's super encouraging, thank you! I appreciate it. I've been daydreaming of crack climbing constantly now. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I will have to try once I'm healed and have crushed all my PT!

Skull & cochlea.  Groundfall at Reed's Pinnacle when I was 18.  

Left lateral tibial plateau crushed like a sat on bag of chips and simultaneouy snapped off the head of the left fibula.  It turns out Subaru Outback bumpers are exactly at knee height if you are a pedestrian.  Butress plate, 7 screws, and bone grafts, 14 weeks non-weight bearing.  But I'm back climbing like crazy.

It’s not climbing related but I’ll add left rib 11 and left scapula to the list.  Broke left ribs 5-12 and the left scapula, as well as a lot of soft tissue damage after being in an avalanche and wrapped around a tree.

One of the many injuries experienced in my 18 years of skateboarding. Fell backwards onto my left wrist, and cracked my scaphoid in half. You can't see the scaphoid in this xray because they took it out completely (see the clear airy pocket between thumb and wrist), and used this neat little ring to join the smaller bones in my wrist. So I guess my body only has 205 bones left! As a result, my range of motion is only about 50% on my left wrist; I cant lay my palm flat to do push ups.

In addition to this, skateboarding has also gifted me a broken lowest left rib, and both broken ankles (right ankle broken twice, still clicks when i twist it just right on a cold day), and countless other non-bone related injuries, eg. bursitis in both knees and a big ol' swollen hematoma in the left knee.

Never broken anything climbing, but I've subluxated my left shoulder, and separated ligaments in my right, and recently reaggravated the bursitis in my right knee (still recovering). turns out once you get bursitis once, it's more likely to happen again.

Be safe out there!

Hi Craig!

How are you doing?

Shattered both ulna and radius in both arms, drove end of radius up into wrist bones on left side. Needed pins on left, should have had pins on right too. Later had to have right side bones rebroken without anesthesia as they weren’t healing right. 

Climbing Weasel wrote:

Shattered both ulna and radius in both arms, drove end of radius up into wrist bones on left side. Needed pins on left, should have had pins on right too. Later had to have right side bones rebroken without anesthesia as they weren’t healing right. 

Wow - how are you doing now?  I also shattered my radius and ulna from a 30 foot indoor groundfall. 

Daniel K wrote:

Wow - how are you doing now?  I also shattered my radius and ulna from a 30 foot indoor groundfall. 

Wow, did your belayer drop you?

Now appreciating this game ... unfortunately.  Full sacrum zone 2 fracture, superior and inferior pubic ramus facture, T12 compression fracture (mild), and separation of pubic symphysis.  Super lucky to avoid any major nerve damage. 

I remember learning about unstable pelvic fractures in my WFR course and how to stabilize them - turns out, the harness waistbelt does work pretty well. Blew two very good, but small (0 and .1 bd) cams, then hit the ground from about 20ft.  

9 screws and a link plate later, I am now healing well 3 weeks post op. Wearing a TLSO brace for 2 months and assuming healing goes well, will be a total of 7-8 weeks no weight bearing on right leg.  PT and light hangs for now, hopefully starting to do some tight top roping in couple of months ...

Daniel K wrote:

Wow - how are you doing now?  I also shattered my radius and ulna from a 30 foot indoor groundfall. 

Completely fine, even if arms are still a little bent. Funnily enough not even climbing related, just tripped and fell over backwards on flat ground. A freak accident. Bone density is fine before anyone asks. I’ve walked away from bike crashes, bad scrambling falls, skiing accidents, been dropped by a belayer, bad lead whips, and fallen off an actual cliff and been fine. Luck just ran out there. 

FrankPS wrote:

Wow, did your belayer drop you?

Unfortunately it was one of those user errors (me).  I failed to clipped into autobelay .. I was too complacent, tired (it was 9 PM on a Saturday evening after a long day), I was the only person in the gym, distracted with headphones.  A bad recipe.