The worst accident that actually did happen when I was about 14. I had shot a javelina and was in the process of gutting the thing. The knife I had was extremely sharp. The knife was slicing through the javelina like a razor cutting paper. But then I went to cut between it's back legs, I pulled the hide away from the animal and tried to gently slice through the hide, but the knife was not cutting. I finally just whipped the knife, just used my wrist, to flick the knife. In an attempt to cut the hide. Well the knife went through the hide easily. I then saw there was a thin piece of cartilage, that I had pulled up with the hide, so I was trying to cut through the cartilage and the hide at the same time.
Well when I flicked the knife and it easily cut through the hide and cartilage, I felt a thump on the inside of my left leg. The guy who was standing there watching me, got this look on his face, like that's not good. My response was, yes, that could have been bad. He said no it is bad, I thought what is he talking about. I looked down and at first saw a hole in my jeans, then realized there was a deep hole in my leg. As I was looking down in the deep hole in my leg, it suddenly filled up with blood and overflowed all over the place. There was quickly blood all over my jeans and the ground. I tried to get up, but I quickly found I had cut a muscle in the front of my leg. Trying to stand up hurt like hell. I stood up, then limped around bleeding all over the place. David, said I needed to go to the hospital, but I did not want to go. He later made a comment about being a vet, he doctored up all of the FFA animals for the kids in his daughter's school. He said he stitched up sheep and hogs all the time. So I asked him to stitch up my leg, he looked at it again and said no. That I needed to go to the hospital.
We were south of Falfurrias, it was over 100 degrees that day. We went back to camp, looked for first aid supplies and then David found about three heavy blankets. I was not paying any attention to him at the time. As we were walking to the truck, everything went black, I tried to yell out, that I could not see. But nothing came out, then I could feel myself falling face forwards, towards the ground. I never felt myself hit the ground.
A while later, I realized I was in my truck, when they started the truck, the air blowing out of the vents, had to have been extremely hot, because it was a black truck that had been in the sun most of the day and it was over 100 degrees that day. But the air felt like I was up in the artic and the air was something like -40 and a 50 mph wind blowing.
Basically very hot air, felt extremely cold. So they shut off the A/C, David started wrapping me up in the heavy blankets he brought from the camp house. Even with three heavy blankets on me, in a black truck in 100 plus degree heat, I was so cold, I was shaking and my teeth were chattering to the point, I was sure my teeth were going to be chipped up or broken, if I survived. I tried to stop shivering and chattering my teeth, but it was way beyond my control.
I lost consciousness again, until a good while later, when we got to the hospital. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot, I could hear liquid sloshing around on the floor of the truck. My thought was, I am going to have a nasty mess to clean up, someone kicked over my 44 oz. Dr. Pepper. When we stopped in the parking lot and opened the right side door, I could hear liquid pouring out on the ground. Again, my thought was, there sure is a lot of soda on the floor of the truck, it's going to be one serious mess to clean up later.
We got into the ER, the took me to a operating room, put me on a table. The doctor asked what happened, I told him. He said, you are lucky you did not cut the artery in your leg, you would not be here, you would be dead. I told him, I think I did cut the artery, he said that was not possible. Then the doctor gave me multiple locals around the wound. Then started digging his finger around in the wound. That was a very strange, uncomfortable feeling. A very dull pain, just very uncomfortable. Eventually he decided he had all of the clotted blood out of the wound. Then stitched up the muscle and then closed the wound up. Then the blood started flowing again. He kept trying to wipe it up, but it kept flowing. So he cut all of the stitches and went back in. Cut the stitches inside, looked around again, added some more stitches to the muscle, then restitched the outside again. Again, the blood started flowing. So he went back in my leg a third time. Cut the stitches down inside my leg, the mopped up some more blood, started digging around, kept looking and eventually his eyes got very big. When I saw that, I said. I told you I cut the artery, I don't think it's cut all the way through, but it's cut. He gave me a look like you are lucky to be alive. He did not say anything, just went to work stitching up the artery, then the muscle and then stitched up the skin again. That time the blood finally stopped flowing.
When I finally got up to leave, the whole operating room floor was covered with bloody foot prints. I had bled all over the floor and they had been walking around in it. My step father had to leave, I figured out why he left the room at that point.
Later we went back out to the truck, when we got there, I saw the puddle on the ground and realized it was a puddle of blood. Then opened the door and the floor of the truck, had a pool of blood about 1/2" deep. That was scary, seeing the ground and the floor of the truck, after seeing the operating room floor. The only reason I survived, was David knew enough to keep me alive. He knew I was probably going to go into shock and brought those heavy blankets. I would have thought there is no way, we were going to need three heavy blankets in 100 degree weather. I got a first hand experience of what going into shock is really like and what loosing a lot of blood is like. You get very cold, it's very scary, once you realize why you are so cold.
Had it only been my step father and me, I would have died, there is not much questioning that. What David did, saved my life. What seemed very minor at first, was a long ways from minor. The next two days, I felt like someone had beat me from head to toe with a baseball bat. I ached all over, like I was bruised all over, but I had no bruises or other injuries, other than the knife wound.
Well when I flicked the knife and it easily cut through the hide and cartilage, I felt a thump on the inside of my left leg. The guy who was standing there watching me, got this look on his face, like that's not good. My response was, yes, that could have been bad. He said no it is bad, I thought what is he talking about. I looked down and at first saw a hole in my jeans, then realized there was a deep hole in my leg. As I was looking down in the deep hole in my leg, it suddenly filled up with blood and overflowed all over the place. There was quickly blood all over my jeans and the ground. I tried to get up, but I quickly found I had cut a muscle in the front of my leg. Trying to stand up hurt like hell. I stood up, then limped around bleeding all over the place. David, said I needed to go to the hospital, but I did not want to go. He later made a comment about being a vet, he doctored up all of the FFA animals for the kids in his daughter's school. He said he stitched up sheep and hogs all the time. So I asked him to stitch up my leg, he looked at it again and said no. That I needed to go to the hospital.
We were south of Falfurrias, it was over 100 degrees that day. We went back to camp, looked for first aid supplies and then David found about three heavy blankets. I was not paying any attention to him at the time. As we were walking to the truck, everything went black, I tried to yell out, that I could not see. But nothing came out, then I could feel myself falling face forwards, towards the ground. I never felt myself hit the ground.
A while later, I realized I was in my truck, when they started the truck, the air blowing out of the vents, had to have been extremely hot, because it was a black truck that had been in the sun most of the day and it was over 100 degrees that day. But the air felt like I was up in the artic and the air was something like -40 and a 50 mph wind blowing.
Basically very hot air, felt extremely cold. So they shut off the A/C, David started wrapping me up in the heavy blankets he brought from the camp house. Even with three heavy blankets on me, in a black truck in 100 plus degree heat, I was so cold, I was shaking and my teeth were chattering to the point, I was sure my teeth were going to be chipped up or broken, if I survived. I tried to stop shivering and chattering my teeth, but it was way beyond my control.
I lost consciousness again, until a good while later, when we got to the hospital. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot, I could hear liquid sloshing around on the floor of the truck. My thought was, I am going to have a nasty mess to clean up, someone kicked over my 44 oz. Dr. Pepper. When we stopped in the parking lot and opened the right side door, I could hear liquid pouring out on the ground. Again, my thought was, there sure is a lot of soda on the floor of the truck, it's going to be one serious mess to clean up later.
We got into the ER, the took me to a operating room, put me on a table. The doctor asked what happened, I told him. He said, you are lucky you did not cut the artery in your leg, you would not be here, you would be dead. I told him, I think I did cut the artery, he said that was not possible. Then the doctor gave me multiple locals around the wound. Then started digging his finger around in the wound. That was a very strange, uncomfortable feeling. A very dull pain, just very uncomfortable. Eventually he decided he had all of the clotted blood out of the wound. Then stitched up the muscle and then closed the wound up. Then the blood started flowing again. He kept trying to wipe it up, but it kept flowing. So he cut all of the stitches and went back in. Cut the stitches inside, looked around again, added some more stitches to the muscle, then restitched the outside again. Again, the blood started flowing. So he went back in my leg a third time. Cut the stitches down inside my leg, the mopped up some more blood, started digging around, kept looking and eventually his eyes got very big. When I saw that, I said. I told you I cut the artery, I don't think it's cut all the way through, but it's cut. He gave me a look like you are lucky to be alive. He did not say anything, just went to work stitching up the artery, then the muscle and then stitched up the skin again. That time the blood finally stopped flowing.
When I finally got up to leave, the whole operating room floor was covered with bloody foot prints. I had bled all over the floor and they had been walking around in it. My step father had to leave, I figured out why he left the room at that point.
Later we went back out to the truck, when we got there, I saw the puddle on the ground and realized it was a puddle of blood. Then opened the door and the floor of the truck, had a pool of blood about 1/2" deep. That was scary, seeing the ground and the floor of the truck, after seeing the operating room floor. The only reason I survived, was David knew enough to keep me alive. He knew I was probably going to go into shock and brought those heavy blankets. I would have thought there is no way, we were going to need three heavy blankets in 100 degree weather. I got a first hand experience of what going into shock is really like and what loosing a lot of blood is like. You get very cold, it's very scary, once you realize why you are so cold.
Had it only been my step father and me, I would have died, there is not much questioning that. What David did, saved my life. What seemed very minor at first, was a long ways from minor. The next two days, I felt like someone had beat me from head to toe with a baseball bat. I ached all over, like I was bruised all over, but I had no bruises or other injuries, other than the knife wound.
Comment