One of my employees was involved in an accident today: his left arm was pinned between a girder and moving crane boom.
His upper arm lost some skin. X-rays showed that the forearm bones and the elbow joint were crushed (meaning, broken beyond fracture).
What does this mean? He’s in Texas and I’m in Wisconsin right now, so my only source of information is the non-technical information conveyed by coworkers who are at the hospital. Can ‘crushed’ bones be repaired? What sort of recovery prospects does he have for time, and for use of that arm?
IAMNAD, but it sounds like he has comminuted fractures, which means that the bones have been shattered into pieces. Have to wait for a doctor to show up for more details, but these fractures can normally be repaired. Restoration surgery can do miracles now.
Also, bone is the only tissue in the body that heals stronger than it was originally. Ordinarily, the body tries to heal lesions as rapidly as possible with a low-grade, fibrous scar tissue which is subject to re-injury at lower forces than produced the first injury. Such is not the case with bone, which begins at the precise instant of injury to heal with higher-quality material than the original, and also with proper treatment tends to model itself over time into the ideal shape to withstand the forces applied to it.
Best wishes to all concerned for a speedy recovery, and Happy Holidays
If his elbow is crushed, I think there is a real possibility that he will lose some of his elbow’s range of motion.
How much long term disabilty he will have will depend, in part, on how old he is (younger people heal better than older ones) and on whether or not he is right or left handed.
I have been told that one of the best predictors of recovery from an industrial accident is the applicable disabiltiy insurance. For example, it is said that no one with a generous disability insurance policy has every fully recovered from a covered back injury.