21.12.06
Humbling 2
When I was a wee physio student there was one lecture that had me nauseous. It was all about burns. Surface burns are bad enough but electrical burns is what got me. The fact that the burn can be internal and along the bone; the flesh dies and becomes manky and the pain is horrible and amputation follows (perhaps). Urgh, shudder!
Today I saw a man in his late 40′s. When he was 13 he stood on the “wrong rail” when playing around some train tracks. Cue huge electric shock with massive burns both internal and external. Somehow he survived this but has been living with the consequences ever since.
Click here if you want to read more (not for everyone):
He came to see me for back pain. This could be utterly unrelated to his previous trials so I do the assessment entirely as normal. The first half of which is talking only. When he took his shirt off was when the fun really started. He has about 75% surface burns to his torso with some onto his arms and legs. He tells me he’s had a total of 32 plastics ops over the years. There’s only one nipple (and it’s in the wrong place), there’s no navel and scarring restricts both shoulder and leg movements. Scar tissue isn’t flexible so his back hasn’t had much movement either. The scarred areas didn’t grow well when he hit his “growth spurt” either so he’s got horrible stretch lines across his scars pretty much everywhere.
I wonder just how much I’ll be able to do. He’s quite philosophical though. And he has been quite useful to society. When his kids (someone managed to sleep with him! Lovely chap but I found him difficult to look at; If I were his girl perhaps I would insist on being taken from behind) were at school he was regularly going round the schools showing kids just what can happen if you play on train lines; and he’s one of the lucky ones.
Oooh. Let’s hope basic advice will do the trick. Perhaps the GP is expecting miracles.
Have fun.