ER Intern: BushHog vs. Legs

So while everyone in the ER knows that the most dangerous thing you can do with yourself when guns are involved is "mind your own business" because that seems to be the #1 reason how people get shot.... what you didn't know is if you are around.... Mowing your law with an industrial mower, is the worst thing you can do for your feet. This last week we have had 4 catastrophic bushhog accidents.

It appears on the screen as bushhog vs leg catastrophe. There is even a billing code for this because it happens so frequently.  I did happen to get an image of one of the more minor injuries as see here. The coolest part of this particular injury is that I was able to take a video of the posterior tibial pulsating because you don't have to feel for his pulse in this one, you can just watch it! Haha. I was just waiting for orthopedics to come down and ask about his neurovascular status.  This guy was pretty lucky. Wile his skin is gone, his achilles tendon and main artieries are intact. He was also able to walk away from the runaway bushhog with this injury.  The will most likely have to graft some skin to cover this over, but he got away scott-free mostly.

Not everyone was this lucky. One guy was coming in by air, but the paramedics with his wife came about 10 minutes early and handed me a lunch box full of grass and toes still in socks.  When he arrive, he had bilateral (both sides) amputation. It was just ground meat that was oozing blood. He had done something that saved his own life. He'd taken off his belt and put it around one leg, the one with the biggest arterial bleed. Even the surgeons gave him kudos for the ability to recognize he needed to stop the bleeding and having the sense to pull the belt TIGHT enough to actually stop the bleeding.  He saved his own life. :) smart guy.  Well minus the drinking and mowing lawn combination.


Here is a guy I saw 24hours after the ATV vs. parked truck event. He reall messed up his girlfriend who had come in the previous night, but this was how his arm looked. He was just walking around with that open and moving it etc etc.... kinda crazy.   We just sewed that sucker up and let him go on his way...