What is the worst injury you've ever suffered & how did it happen?

I haven’t broken anything, yet. Lucky, I guess. <knocks on wood/head>>

Does a traumatic childbirth count? I lost a lot of blood.

Aside from that, I got into a bike accident when I was six or seven. Two big kids on ten speeds not paying attention ran me over. My hair got caught in one of their handlebar brakes and pulled up part of my scalp (about 2”). Because my mother ignored me waited too long to take me to the hospital pediatrician (damn her.) it couldn’t be stitched. I had to have part of my head shaved and have butterfly bandages hold my head together.

Yeah. Second grade was fuuuun.~ That was the same year my Bugs Bunny earring was pulled right out of my ear (the hard way) while I slid into Home plate. Joy.

Compound breaks on my arm, wrist and hand along with a couple of fingers and a collar bone. That day was awesome! Bones popping out in a few directions and my body did not want to go in to shock, so I got to feel all of it. On top of that it was snowing really, really hard out and most of the roads were closed so it took the ambulance longer to get there and longer for us to get to the hospital all the while the guy in the back of the ambulance kept saying, man, I don’t believe it. I asked him if everything looked ok and his response was, you want the truth? Then the ambulance road over some railroad tracks without warning….Loved that day

Car jack slipped while I was messing with my car & crushed my left hand! I can still hold a beer though ;-)

I went down a slide head first at an indoor playground when I was a kid. All my weight I was heavy for my age (muscle not fat) with the help of gravity was on my head when I “landed.” I don’t know why I didn’t put my hands out. I was paralyzed for a few minutes, but fine after that. It didn’t hurt though lol

@Seek_Kolinahr: Thus, the ears? ~

I had an emergency spontaneous pneumothorax tension – no anesthesia. Not fun.

@zenele

That’s where they inflate a collapsed lung, right?

Yes, dear. Not fun. Though I wouldn’t trade with you, either.

Nothing worth noting, really. One funny thing: I thought, “I think I’ll start doing situps!!” so I got down on my back, put my hands behind my head and lifted my head up (just my head) ONCE.
I had a bad stiff neck and shoulders for a week.

I had a 3,000 lb pedestal mixer fall over on my foot that was particularly unfun and painful but nothing comes close to the 2 months of agony from a herniated disc! Oh my that was almost too much.

Despite all the dangerous physical activities I’ve done, I really haven’t gotten much worse than a few scrapes and cuts here and there. I’ve never even broken a bone. The worst was probably the time I got five “holes” in my leg from falling on the gear of my bike. The scar lasted for a long time, but it seems to be gone now. :\

@Cruiser if that herniated disc is ok now you are one lucky fellow! People suffer for Years with them!

I’ve been pretty lucky in the injury department. The worst injury I ever got happened while playing baseball in the street with my little brother. I pitched the baseball, and he hit a line drive straight to my face. The ball caught me right on the cheekbone and knocked me flat. Our family doctor lived next door and happened to be out in his yard when it happened, so he saw the whole thing. He checked me out, and suggested my parents take me to the ER just to be safe. I had my head x-rayed but no fractures.

I did have a lovely black eye. At my dad’s suggestion, when people at school asked me what happened, I said, “If you think this looks bad, you should see the other guy.” I was 10 or 11.

Oh, I just saw the herniated disc reference up there, and can’t believe I forgot about that one. I managed to give myself a herniated disc while playing on the slide with my daughter. The pain was almost as horrible as having to spend two weeks on complete bed rest. At least I didn’t need surgery, and haven’t had back problems since.

@Aster I would probably still be suffering if not for discovering yoga! It has kept me pain free for 8 years now!

I nearly lost my right arm to an artillery shell in 1991. Also shrapnel all over the right side of my body. Reconstructing the shoulder took 18 months, followed by two years of physical therapy. Plastic surgery on my face made me almost tolerable to look at.

@Cruiser Yoga? Got video?

@Aster Oddly enough it was Kathy Smith Yoga for Pregnancy tape that helped heal me as it was the only one we had, but I took enough classes now I could teach it and primarily do my own practice. I would recommend Sun Salutations everyday to anyone as a start.

@Cruiser I have 2 or 3 DVD’s and what happened to you I think is just wonderful, cruiser.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Pics or it never happened.

@zenele Yeah . Pics or it never happened. Spandex shorts or it is a figment of his imagination.

various heart breakings… Oh and cracked three teeth on a bradley observation box.

Compression of nerves at several levels of my spine that have left me with severe chronic pain.
I was in a stopped car that was rear-ended at 70 mph and then again (by the same car a minute later) at 45 mph.

First time she was driving while distracted. She claims to have been confused by French Language on the sign below the English Language (at US-Canada border)
Second time she claims she was confused.
No alcohol involved apparently.

@Dr_Lawrence I am really so sorry about this. Can you do yoga too?

I’ve been pretty lucky. No major injuries. The following is my answer to one of the siblings to the right:

I was playing on one of those metal tumble bars during recess in the second grade. I was trying to do that trick when you sit on top with one leg in front of the bar and one leg behind, then you swing yourself around. (sorry, I can’t remember what the trick is called.) As I fell forward to do the trick, I didn’t realize that I had both legs in front of me. I fell 5ft. down, flat onto my face. I ran crying to the restroom with sand and blood all over my mouth.

There was also the moment when a medical student was performing my episiotomy during the birth of my second son. One word you don’t want to hear when this procedure is happening is “Oops”. Yeah, he cut too far. I ended up with an abscess during the healing process. Worst pain I ever experienced.

The worst I’ve had was when I was about 10. I foolishly jumped into a large patch of deep grass, hands first, and landed my left hand on a broken beer bottle. I ran down the street screaming, (caught all the neighbours attention while doing so…lol) a few needles and stitches later I was fine.

@zenele It may take me a while to find, scan and upload them.

@Seek_Kolinahr Yiiikes, that made me cringe :X

I’ve never broken anything either, but the most painful injury I remember happened when I was in 8th or 9th grade when me and my friends were hopping fences to get somewhere (we did it all the time). As I jumped down from the top of a wooden fence, the post/stake caught my arm and scraped alllll the way down. My arm was on absolute fire. It was just like being skinned alive. I had a big scrape-scar running shoulder to elbow for a while, but it’s gone now.

My 4 year old cousin also accidentally hurled a big-ass rock at the back of my head while I was bent over, and the heel of my dad’s construction boot smashed me under the eye while we were sledding. Those hurt. Both happened when I was like, 8 or 9 years old.

I guess I’ve had four big ones. When I was 11 I grabbed onto a zip line set up in my best friend’s backyard. The first part of the ride was over her mother’s rockery garden. I didn’t get my left leg up enough and I caught my toe on a big jagged rock that ended up gouging up my shin…to the bone in a couple of places.

Then I was on Mayne Island that summer riding a small motor cycle. I hit a root and got pitched forward into the handle bars. I broke 5 ribs but I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to go home. It hurt to breathe for a long time.

The next year I was at the park with a bunch of friends and my younger sister. She was swinging a baseball bat over her head. I kept telling her to put it down because she was going to hit someone. Next thing I knew I was looking at the sky through one eye. She had broken my nose and scraped the bat across my open eye. The eye hurt more than the broken nose. Everyone had scattered so I have no idea how long I had been out for.

When I was little, 3 or 4, my older sister purposely dropped a large rock on my hand which was lying on concrete. She nearly severed my baby finger. I don’t remember much of that one though but I have a cool scar to prove it.

I’ve had some doozies, but the two I remember best both involved bikes. The first was when I was around 12. I flipped over the handlebars and landed on the pavement flat on the top of my head. Everything within my field of vision flattened—probably the result of a minor concussion. Some good soul stopped in their car and drove me home.

Years later, when I was in my 40s, I was pedalling home at dusk, having just aired up my tires. I was riding faster than I realized and when I hit a curb, I flipped over the candlebars, and came down on both knees, shattering one and ripping open the skin on the other. Blood everywhere! I dragged myself to a house, bike and all (I must have been in a daze) and knocked on the door. A woman answered, took one look at me, and kind of backed away. I asked if I could use her phone to call a friend, and—get this—she made me drag around to the side of the house and go in through the carport door so as not to get blood on her carpet. As I was dialing the phone (she hadn’t even asked to call for me), SHE TOLD ME SHE WAS A NURSE!

@Austinlad What a bucking fitch.

Yeah, ucme. I don’t ride bikes anymore!

Hey!, it wasn’t the bikes fault!

Never broken a bone amazingly, but..lets see…various childhood accidents, fat lips, black eyes, chipped teeth..( yeah I was a tomboy )

Doberman bit me in the eye when I was eleven…evil dog named Apache, lol.

Missed my eye itself by about a millemeter…whew!

Numerous bicycle wrecks, was on a raft and slammed back first into the cement pillar of a bridge stuck in a whirlpool on the river once that knocked the wind out of me.

Got broadsided on a Yamaha 80 and knocked unconscious for a few minutes, popped a wheelie on same and landed in the mother of all rosebushes. lol

The worst was probably one of several horse wrecks, got dumped and dislocated my shoulder, was stepped on in about 3 places, black and blue from head to toe, mild concussion and had a piece of my collarbone shaved off to form a permanent bracket for my pinned shoulder.

Childbirth wasn’t too fun either. lol

Trimalleolar fracture of my left ankle, that needed surgery.
Two herniated discs in my neck, surgery again.
Ruptured disc in my lower back, surgery again.
My right arm caught and almost ripped off while I was on the riding lawn mower.
surgery pending…
Various other rips and tears as well.
The ruptured disc was by far the worst, I need @Cruiser ‘s yoga video

I guess I’ve been very lucky. The worst injury I’ve ever suffered is a broken little toe; I’ve broken it twice. That’s about it.

Hmm lets see, I would not call it an injury but more of a disability. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was in the eighth grade. In my sophomore year of high school I had to have a spinal fusion. I had an “S” shape in my back of a 56 and 36 degree angle. I was in the hospital for three days and out of school for a month and a half. Now I have two titanium rods, and 17 screws in my back, and a lovely 12inch scar. But now I am completely fine, and can do whatever I want without restraint.

@jjmah Careful! I announced that I was going to turn 21 without ever having broken a bone, and a week later, still before my 21st birthday, I broke my wrist.

It was badly broken and I had to prematurely terminate my European trip to return to the US for surgery. I have a titanium plate in my left wrist and a cool lightening bolt shaped scar that took 14 stitches. It’s probably going to be a little off forever.