Often we have patients come in with rock-related injuries; a rock fell on them, they fell onto a rock, some rocks gave way in their garden and they fell down the hillside… But none are more interesting than the stories which accompany the cases caused by thrown rocks: there is always some excuse, some reason, for them having the rock thrown at them. And they are, more often than nought, innocent, of course. How much of each individual story you would like to believe is entirely up to you, but sometimes the circumstances surrounding the injury are just a little too fishy to support the entirety of the individual’s innocency…
Such was the case with this young man yesterday. At the beginning of the operation his story went that he was just passing by a fight, minding his own business, and someone threw a random stone at him; but as the evening wore on, he eventually confessed to have entered into the brawl and thus acquired this pretty souvenir…
Looks pretty bad…
The rock smashed his ear up against his head, splicing and slicing it in at least two places!
The instruments were prepared…
And Michael began the operation…
After sterilizing the area, a clean and sterile pad is placed around his ear to keep the operation area clean.
One, two, three…
Four, five, six, seven stitches!
Feeling much better!
He was fearing for his ear at the first, because his buddies outside the
gate were telling him we’d probably have to amputate it! 🙂
Michael made sure to let him know that this was not the case 🙂