full report for friends asking:
Freak accident last night, slipped and fell at a BBQ, and a fillet knife sliced my peroneal nerve and a major artery, all the way into my shin bone. I didn’t feel anything, but I looked down and saw my bone and the wound pouring.
I was bleeding out fast. I applied pressure with my hand directly on the exposed artery and bone and hopped over to my friends. My friends and I tied a tank top around the wound, jammed in a pen for a makeshift tourniquet, wound it up tight to stop the bloodflow, then made two more above and below the wound with our shirts. That quick response bought me enough time for my friend to get me to the ER.
We waited in the ER for about an hour before getting seen by a nurse. She opened the tourniquet, took pressure off, and she got sprayed, shin exposed, artery wide open. She tried to clean it a bit the we out the pressure back on. Then we sat in the hallway to wait for a doctor.
The ER doc said they weren’t equipped to stop the bleeding. At this point I’m getting dizzy and shaky cause the shock was wearing off. Very nervous. They said they weren’t outfitted to handle that kind of bleeding, so they didn’t want to dress it. They spent some time debating whether to gamble and try to close it themselves, or spend hours transferring me to a severe trauma surgeon in another hospital.
Finally, one doctor made the call. He joked I was holding up the patient line. He opened the tourniquet, cleaned the wound, and stitched the artery, deep tissue, fascia, and everything back together, inside and out. Two hours and several injections of antibiotics and pain killers later, I was stitched up and stable.
I’m home now. Stuck in bed, leg elevated. Can’t walk or move much. The pain didn’t hit until this morning and it’s unbearable to be honest. Never had anything like it. The doctors said I’m incredibly lucky.
Still waiting to see if I’ll need surgery, depending in how the nerves and tissues heal, and how bad the nerve damage is. Had a nice house call today to reassess and clean and get more pain killers and antibiotic injections. They said fortunately it was a very sharp knife, so the nerves may reconnect smooth. There’s a lot of parts of my leg that numb out randomly, and some drop foot when I try to move, but I’m optimistic it will heal well. Not too much bleeding so the artery seems good. Just monitoring for infection and trying to manage pain and inflammation now.
No swimming, no jiu-jitsu, no walking for a while. But I’m really grateful for the helpful visitors, my neighbors, the support, and especially the friends who stayed calm under pressure and saved my life.
Anyway, accidents happen. Going as well as can be. I’m definitely going to invest some more time into emergency prep, and I think it's worthwhile for everyone to consider learning some basics too. If you have any suggested material on this please send it 🤙
