As many of you already know.... on Friday, Oct. 23rd, Darryl had an accident at work. This 15 ft(faulty) ladder decided to fall over... sending Darryl plummeting about 20 ft to the concrete below!
(The smaller ladder in this picture is the average
6 ft ladder)
He tried to grab on for dear life, tearing through the hatch opening.
He landed elbow first, then his face hit the concrete. He said that everything went "white" and that he thought he was dead.....but as soon as he "bounced" on his back, he realized that he was alive and in excruciating pain!
He endured the 50 mile ambulance ride (which included an "almost" car accident with an oblivious geriatric lady, who's car ended up on a curb) to Desert Regional Medical Center, a Trauma Center. It was actually quite lovely there! Thank goodness, 'cause he was there for 3 days... granted, he had his own room on the "Sinatra" floor! ;)
After hours of running tests, it was
determined that Darryl's most
serious and obvious injury was his
left elbow which sustained
compound "open" fractures.
Not lookin' too hot!
He was in surgery for 5 hours! They repaired his 80% torn tricep muscle and the major fractures and crushed bones.
Darryl's new hardware! 18 screws, a few plates and some other parts that Darryl swears they took from his tool box!
30 staple swollen trail (3 days post-op)
Just a few days after surgery, he had to "move" his arm/elbow so that his tricep muscle won't turn into "cement". He wasn't excited to do it...... mucho pain!
Some ummm.... massive bruising! And we are only talking about his arm/elbow!
He did suffer a concussion, bruised ribs, knees, face....and the list goes on~ poor thing!
Started therapy within the first week!
Here he is on his 2nd week of therapy. Doing much better and the swelling has gone down tremendously!
Having staples removed! "Oops, sorry... did that one pinch?"
Considering this being the month of "Thanksgiving".... let me express how grateful we are that it turned out the way it did!
We have imagined a million different "could haves"..... like, could have been:
lying in a casket
lying on life support
lying in a coma
lying as a quadriplegic
lying as a paraplegic
lying with crushed legs
lying with a crushed pelvis.....and so on!
We are so thankful that he was being watched over that day and like we keep reminding
ourselves..... it could have been worse!
~
