5 years ago, this next week. Ben got a job at Target and about 3 months later we had a big trip planned to Lake Mead. We were going to take our wave runner with us so we took them to Utah lake to test them out.
Ben's friend from Target came with us, (he had never rode wave runner before)
They were out on the lake they went so far east we couldn't see them anymore and then I noticed about 20 minutes or so them coming back. Ben was slumped over the handle bars, and knowing Ben, that just seemed weird I went running down to the dock and yelled at him, asking what was wrong.
He told me that he had broke his leg, I looked down and saw that his leg was bruised really bad, and said okay let's go to the hospital.
His brother Jared who was in town from Canada to go with us on the trip to Lake Mead. Jared put his arms under Ben and tried to help him off the wave runner and that's when we all saw how bad his leg was.
It had broke through both bones, he had part of a bone in the middle of his shin sticking out and and a big cut down by the top of his foot. It was then I realized we would need to call 911. We did and they didn't understand where we were. We were on the west side of Utah lake at the nice marina they have over there, but 5 years ago it wasn't nearly as busy as it is now. They transferred my phone call at least 4-5 times to different dispatchers trying to get me to the right person.
Finally a first responder came and she was trying to stabilize his leg, she wanted to move his leg, we told her it was broken all the way through, she moved it anyway. But it lite a fire under he butt to get people out there to help us.
Ben was then in so much pain, he had been in shock and now he was in a lot of pain. The ambulance got there and they gave him quite a bit of morphine, to get him in the ambulance.
The ride to the hospital was a joke. It was rush hour, we had to wait for a train at the round-da-bout. The ambulance driver said to his co-workers. We should have called air-med, (you don't say that with a wife sitting next to you)
So about 2 hours after the accident we made it to AF hospital.
He then went to emergency surgery about 2 hours later ( I know all of the OR rooms were full)
He got out of surgery about midnight. He had a titanium rod placed in his leg, and they left the other bone broken.
It gets worse. Ben was in SO MUCH PAIN, overnight we all just thought it was because of what happen. That was the LONGEST night of my life. They kept upping his pain meds and that would make him breath really shallow, and at times would stop breathing for 30 seconds to 45 seconds. I finally put my hand on his chest. (come to find out, they should have put a pulse oximeter on his finger)
Finally the doctor came in about 8:00am and unwrapped his leg. The look on his face was horrifying.
He looked at the nurse and told her to call and clear the OR, he needed to rush him in to emergency surgery again.
He had what was called compartment syndrome. His muscles and tissues was so traumatized that they swelled up so bad that his skin was tearing and he had huge blisters of fluid from his leg being 4-5 times it's normal size.
So they took him in they "filleted" his leg is what he called it, no joke.....
so here are the pics from the surgery after they cut it open to release the pressure they left it open for 5 days and then after 5 days he went back to surgery and then sewed it back up.
The things that I am grateful for, Ben had worked at Target 93 days. His insurance kicked in after 90 days of employment. 35,000 is what his bill came to and we owed about 20% of that.
Also the other lesson I learned. If you ever experience something traumatic and you are traveling in the ambulance you can INSIST they take you to a bigger hospital, I did ask them to take him to the U. But they said he was so unstable. I found out you can ask for more, air med etc.....
Of course now it is all 20/20 and I would have done things different.
He had a lot of and still does have nerve damage in his foot, because they took so long to do the surgery and the nurses all night long never checked on his leg and realized what was happening.
So what actually happen Ben and his friend were riding by each other and the friend fell back. Ben couldn't see him anymore and turned around to see where he was and he was right behind him, following to close and had no time to stop the whole force of the machine hit ben's leg and hand.
