careful with the ladder

[pucho812]

o.k. So I been holding off on this one for a good while... It took me a while to get the whole story and more over took me a while to digest it all. first off I live pretty far from home over 2000 miles. I know  my folks are not getting any younger and I will eventually get calls with bad news. This happened a few weeks back.


anyway Sunday sept 26'th my dad age 77 went out to trim trees in the yard. Best access point for these trees is the roof. So he ran a ladder up to the roof and proceeded to climb up. He wasn't careful with the angle of the ladder and as he almost neared the top, the ladder went out from under him. in the process of falling onto the concrete driveway at home, He shattered his femur, fractured his hip, destroyed the socket where the femur connects into the hip and in the final coup de gras of it all the ladder, an extension ladder, cut into his leg with the locking part that locks the extension when it's raised. This is all from rain the previous day and not double checking the ladder angle/position before going up. He has been in the hospital since. In surgery they rebuilt his socket and put in plates in his hip and femur. He will be released  this comming Wednesday.  will have a good 7 more weeks of a wheel chair as his made mode of transportation. He is not allowed to put any real weight on it, cannot drive, or do anything until the doctor says so.  Talk about a real shocker. The man has never really been sick in the last 40 some out years. It's crazy. I'm currently back at home setting up my folks house for when he gets back.  Installing special rails so he can maneuver off and on the toilet things like that. It's strange seeing the man in such a position but hey I get to return all the times he took care of me as a kid.

all this to say

guys you only get 1 real dad in life, take good care of him while you can.

 

[sodderboy]

Dang that rots.  Almost the same thing happened to my neighbor last summer.  Glad he is being released- get him out of there.  Our prayers go out to your family to get Dad out of there and on the mend!
Mike

 

[zayance]

, yes sad news, i remember one phrase that i read somewhere, it was saying something like "you can't give back all the things your parents gave you even if you had to carry each one on your shoulders a life long...", as you said take good care of your folks while you can, he will get well i'm sure, will take time but everything in this life takes time...

 

[fazer]

Sorry to hear that news.  I have since lost both my parents and think about them all the time.  For me that means to help someone else.  Maybe we can all help some elderly person in our own neighborhood.  I had some people next door for years and the neighborhood would always shovel snow for them to get out. 

I hope for a speedy recovery for your Dad Pucho.    Michael 

 

[pucho812]

thanks guys for the kind words, thoughts and prayers.  My  dad has the  right attitude for recovery it will just take time. I was more upset then he was..  Closest I ever saw him laid out was when I was a kid back in texas. He got bitten by a rattle snake. He didn't know and thought it was a cactus as it didn't really bother him. woke up that even with the worst shakes and his leg turning black. made a full recovery without any issues from that.  but yeah guys thanks.

 

[grantlack]

Being of the biomedical engineering discipline, the fact that the docs were confident with a rebuilding approach rather than a straight replacement strikes me as a very good sign. Must still have plenty of quality bone stock even at his age, which means he should hopefully heal rather quickly (all things being relative). That seems to be borne out in the 8-10 week estimate for wheelchair use, it's remarkably short. You obviously come from very good stock pucho. I'll be thinking of your dad while I sit in on my implant design course.

Food for thought: my dad's coworker fell from a ladder and suffered permanent brain damage. If it was to happen, at least he went the right direction.

 

[pucho812]

the doctors didn't want to replace it as in their words there was nothing to attach the replacement too. so I heard second hand and I can't confirm that.

 

[PRR]

>> the fact that the docs were confident with a rebuilding approach rather than a straight replacement strikes me as a very good sign.

> in their words there was nothing to attach the replacement to

Or as Pucho said: "...destroyed the socket where the femur connects into the hip..."

I'm not a bio-med, I'm a car mechanic. The wheels attach to suspension arms swivel-jointed to the frame. The joints wear from normal use, and joint replacement ("bushing job") is common.

The hip-joint also gets squeaky and there is an aftermarket part "fix" to give you a new bushing surface. You have to cut some bone to attach the new part, but a squeaky hip is usually on an intact pelvis so a minimum of cutting is done.

If you drop your car out of a tree onto one wheel, you bang-up more than the rubber bushing and shaft. You may tear the welded bracket off the frame, which isn't supposed to tear, so when it does break the frame is so munged-up you should get a new frame.

When a new frame is not available, OEM or aftermarket (NAPA does not list "pelvis, 1933 Pucho-dad"), you push the torn ends back together and cover the missing metal with a mending plate. You may screw to hold position but you generally must weld to get sufficient strength to drive again.

That's about what the docs did. Mending plates, screws, and instead of welding they are letting "glue grow".

 

[eskimo]

Are you saying you could've repaired pucho's dad at a better price?

 

[pstamler]

Pucho, I'm sorry to hear about this. Ladders are dangerous places; a buddy of mine was up one, trimming trees, when a branch snapped back and knocked him off. His back was broken; they got him to a hospital and, very lucky man, he didn't suffer any spinal damage. But he was in a neck-to-waist cast all of the summer of 93, which was the year of the big flood in the midwest, and his family and friends had to carry all his wood and woodworking tools when the Missouri river rose and flooded their house, which included his shop. He's now in great shape, playing music and making beautiful wooden sculptures. So yeah, the doctors are pretty good these days at putting people back together, and it sounds like your dad had excellent care.

Buy him an iPod and load it up, since he's going to be sitting and mending for a while. And pass on to him all the wishes and prayers for his quick and uneventful recovery.

Peace,
Paul

 

[pucho812]

>> the fact that the docs were confident with a rebuilding approach rather than a straight replacement strikes me as a very good sign.

> in their words there was nothing to attach the replacement to

Or as Pucho said: "...destroyed the socket where the femur connects into the hip..."

I'm not a bio-med, I'm a car mechanic. The wheels attach to suspension arms swivel-jointed to the frame. The joints wear from normal use, and joint replacement ("bushing job") is common.

The hip-joint also gets squeaky and there is an aftermarket part "fix" to give you a new bushing surface. You have to cut some bone to attach the new part, but a squeaky hip is usually on an intact pelvis so a minimum of cutting is done.

If you drop your car out of a tree onto one wheel, you bang-up more than the rubber bushing and shaft. You may tear the welded bracket off the frame, which isn't supposed to tear, so when it does break the frame is so munged-up you should get a new frame.

When a new frame is not available, OEM or aftermarket (NAPA does not list "pelvis, 1933 Pucho-dad"), you push the torn ends back together and cover the missing metal with a mending plate. You may screw to hold position but you generally must weld to get sufficient strength to drive again.

That's about what the docs did. Mending plates, screws, and instead of welding they are letting "glue grow".

That is correct. thanks all for the kind words. He has been looking better by the day.  Swelling is going down,etc etc,etc.  They have him sort of walking already. Well he is upright on his feet and hopping with a walker device. Can't put weight on it till it mends properly.  Other then that wheel chair is the main mode of transportation.

Paul, You made a great suggestion however My dad has reached the same conclusion I have, vinyl is the way to go. It has that sound.

 

[grantlack]

that's the other side of the decision coin.  glad it wasn't severe enough to warrant fusion.  there are often cases where THA is still an option for major damage because it's in the revision region for the new acetabular cup, but he clearly must have exceeded that.  good to hear that the ol' pucho-dad is at least getting out of neutral a bit though, modern medicine is a wonderful thing!