(rubbersidedown @ Jun. 25 2007,13
) How is he Ron?
its rough Andy.
I called him Friday night and turns out that yeah, they amputated above the knee, way above the knee, he only has 6 inches of his leg left, just enough to put prosthetics on.
I was trying to make him feel better (yeah like that is possible) and I was telling him that he was natuallry going to go through times of depression and that we would all be there for him and do whatever we could. Up until that point the conversation was ok, then after I said that, thinking I was giving him support, he just lost it and started balling. I think he was holding everything in until I said that and then he just lost it.. man did I feel like crap. I didn’t mean to make him cry and I was trying to give him some kind of comfort. I guess I suck at it.
Also found out the cement truck driver saved his life, when he ran back to where my father in-law was, the lower part of his leg from the knee down was unrecognizable, the knee itself was gone, just a big hole where the knee should have been and everything below that was just ground meat I guess, the doctor said you couldn’t even tell it was a foot or leg.
So the driver sees this, sees blood just gushing out of his leg (or whats left of it) and puts a belt on it and cinches it down real tight to stop the blood flow.
The doctor said that was the only thing that saved his life, even with the tourniquet he came into the ER with a BP of 50. The doctor said he was close to death and if the driver didn’t put the belt on there was no question that he would have been dead
Above the knee he had a compound fracture in the leg. There was so much damage to the leg and so much missing and ground up there was no saving it.
Then, while in the hospital some administrative bean counter type goes into his room and explains to him that VA (he is a veteran) is probably not going to pay for it, and the ICU room was costing him $5000.00 a day and he already had a $100,000 bill.
Well my father in law is a real nice guy, doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone etc etc, so now he is feeling the pressure of the financial responsibility and he starts telling my wife and his other daughter that he cant pay that kind of money and it would have been better if he just died.
Well the good news is, he is alive and the driver did save his life, second good news is the hospital bean counter came in the very next day and said he had good news that the VA was going to pay 100% of all medical expenses, but they needed to move him to a VA hospital as soon as he was ready.
Just sucks. Guy is retired, was working at a camp site maintaining it, would go there during the week and stay in his little trailer for a few days, go back to his house where him and his gf lived for a few days. Life was pretty good.
And while things without a doubt could have been much worse (at least for the family) things are going to be pretty hard on him trying to cope at his age with living life in a new way.
