Stupid mistakes/ER Visit

Sports Journalists Forum – Media, Newsroom & Reporting Talk

Help Support Sports Journalists Forum:

qtlaw

Well-Known Member
Silver Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2002
Messages
16,556
City & State/Province
Beautiful Northern California
Sitting at locker room this week after showering; bend over and bam I hit my head on door jam sticking out. Hand to head and ….blood. Stop bleeding, drive home and wifey says better get that looked at and cleaned.

Five staples to head. Boy I feel stupid. Luckily, in and out in 90 mins. Got to meet a cute 2 yr old with broken elbow.

Your last visit?
 
Sitting at locker room this week after showering; bend over and bam I hit my head on door jam sticking out. Hand to head and ….blood. Stop bleeding, drive home and wifey says better get that looked at and cleaned.

Five staples to head. Boy I feel stupid. Luckily, in and out in 90 mins. Got to meet a cute 2 yr old with broken elbow.

Your last visit?
September. Shortness of breath. "Urgent Care" clinic says I have to go to the E/R because I have a combo of pneumonia and COVID. E/R doc takes one look at my test results from the Urgent Care place and says, "I don't know why you're here. You don't have pneumonia."
 
Middle of an ice storm last January, temps start to go up a little bit, and the sleet changes to rain. Get an alert that a package I was waiting for was delivered to the mailbox.

I put on some slides (was wearing shorts and a T-shirt) and trot out the front door. Feet go right out from under me and I hit the back of my head on a step made of bricks on the porch. Lights out, slides fly off. I come to and go to get up, have the wherewithal to walk in the little flower garden next to the porch/sidewalk, and my equilibrium is so messed up that I stagger sideways and fall again in the yard. Lights out again.

My son was in his room and my wife thought I was in the garage, as she was going to a Zoom book club in our bedroom. So I'm laying in the yard, didn't have the ability to even get up on my knees, in 30-ish degree temps and in a driving cold rain, in shorts and a T-shirt.

After about 5 minutes, I realize this could be a really bad scene. I reach one of my slides and throw it at the front door. Nothing. I can reach one of those solar-powered landscape lights, so I grab that and chuck it at the door as hard as I can.

My wife hears that and comes to the door, turns on the light and sees me laying in the yard and a ridiculous amount of blood covering the front steps (I didn't know I was cut).

So she drives me to the ER in an ice storm, they get me in right away because everywhere they took me to wait, I was leaving a pool of blood.

Get 6 staples, and it took probably 4 months before my balance got back to normal and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out whenever I went from sitting/standing to laying down/sitting/getting out of bed.
 
Probably should have been Sunday before last. I wasn’t exactly running but I was trying to make a quick run to the fridge before the overtime game I was watching resumed. Lost my footing in knockoff Crocs and took an off balance step or two on my hardwood floor and crashed into the corner wrist first. It was hard enough to knock me to the ground.

Wondered for a bit if I had broken my wrist, but I didn’t scream when I tried moving it. It still hurts but not nearly as bad now, 10 days later. Best I can tell it was a bone bruise. Still don’t have all my strength back but it is getting there. Wearing a brace for however long I can stand it in a given day.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to hear it, QT. Speedy recovery.

As I vigorously knock on wood, I've not had to go for myself. Had to go to an urgent care MD place about 10 years ago for a bad case of pharyngitis, but that's not the ER.

I did have to take my buddy to the ER in college when his shirt caught on fire when leaning against a stove during a party (electric stove, his butt turned on the burner and his shirt tail was on the burner. Blazed up fast and he's got some burn scars on his back, but he's fine).
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
Transporting a bag of broken pieces of tile to the dumpster. I lift it up to pour it in, which is a chore given my height. Piece of tile falls back toward my face, slices my lip. Four stitches. Thirteen years ago.

Been very lucky since then. Dropped a 20-pound stone border rock on my foot. No damage. Running with my dog, he cuts in front of me and I trip over him and go splat on the pavement. Wrist pain for about a week.
 
Slipped on a tile floor in a convenience store in August 2019. Broke my arm just below the shoulder. Ortho said I was lucky the break was clean or I would have had shoulder replacement. First and hopefully only ambulance ride and ER visit.

Found out someone in the back tipped over a mop bucket and it leaked into the store.
 
Middle of an ice storm last January, temps start to go up a little bit, and the sleet changes to rain. Get an alert that a package I was waiting for was delivered to the mailbox.

I put on some slides (was wearing shorts and a T-shirt) and trot out the front door. Feet go right out from under me and I hit the back of my head on a step made of bricks on the porch. Lights out, slides fly off. I come to and go to get up, have the wherewithal to walk in the little flower garden next to the porch/sidewalk, and my equilibrium is so messed up that I stagger sideways and fall again in the yard. Lights out again.

My son was in his room and my wife thought I was in the garage, as she was going to a Zoom book club in our bedroom. So I'm laying in the yard, didn't have the ability to even get up on my knees, in 30-ish degree temps and in a driving cold rain, in shorts and a T-shirt.

After about 5 minutes, I realize this could be a really bad scene. I reach one of my slides and throw it at the front door. Nothing. I can reach one of those solar-powered landscape lights, so I grab that and chuck it at the door as hard as I can.

My wife hears that and comes to the door, turns on the light and sees me laying in the yard and a ridiculous amount of blood covering the front steps (I didn't know I was cut).

So she drives me to the ER in an ice storm, they get me in right away because everywhere they took me to wait, I was leaving a pool of blood.

Get 6 staples, and it took probably 4 months before my balance got back to normal and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out whenever I went from sitting/standing to laying down/sitting/getting out of bed.
I got to admit I’m really disappointed your story doesn’t involve how you got your screen name.
 
First night in our new home in Albuquerque. 3 AM shuffle down the hallway to the bathroom when a hallway table introduces itself to my foot. I looked down and my entire big toenail is peeled back like a banana. Yes it hurts just as much as you think it would, which is why I was sent to the front of the line in a room full of OD tweekers at the ER
 
I have one clumsy and one athletic teenager, so we’re familiar with the ER, with everything from concussions to ankle sprains and testicular torsions that ended in surgery.

My last trip was was a ruptured appendix in flight between Bagram and Jalalabad in October 2012.
 
Probably about 10 years ago.
I was trying to take a hand saw out of its plastic package/sheath and it was being stubborn. When it finally gave way, it ripped across my left middle finger and chewed it up good. Lots of blood and a ragged-looking wound.

I washed it off in the sink, grabbed some paper towels and pressed as tight as I could. A few minutes later I drove myself to the ER about 10 minutes away, pretty much one-handed so I could keep pressure on my finger.

Got there and it took them 30 or 40 minutes to look at it. When they finally got to me, I unpacked the towels and the bleeding had stopped although the wound still looked nasty.
They gave me three stitches. I removed them myself about a week later, which made me feel like a bad ass. Also have a small scar from it.
And, ever since then, I wear an oven mitt when I take that saw out of the package/sheath. It's probably saved me from having two or three more similar incidents.
 
Last day of school last June, I hadn’t eaten and wasn’t drinking much water. Very busy day and I was emptying my classroom ahead of my school change. I realized I hadn’t eaten, so I grabbed a burrito. Short time later, I got dizzy and my heart was racing and I had to sit down. Eventually had some stomach issues and just was feeling off.

Finally went in to get checked. BP was high but heart was fine, no stroke, no pneumonia, no Covid or anything else. Probably was stressed and dehydrated.

While I was there, two drunk guys were sitting in the waiting room. One clearly messed up his face. His buddy was calling everyone to tell them they were in the ER because the guy’s face was messed up and each time he’d laugh really hard then call his buddy a dumbass. His buddy was too drunk to care.
 
A year ago tomorrow, and it had nothing to do with being klutzy. I was driving, and something started coming over me. I'd stop for a bit, walk around, shake it off, and be OK for a bit, then it would start again. I was losing motor control and had trouble speaking. I got scared, thinking I was having a stroke or something and pulled into the next ER I saw outside of Charlotte. It was all I could do to get myself inside and communicate what was happening.
They assumed I was on drugs, and did all kinds of BS. Toxicology came back pure as the driven snow. They got a hold of my wife, doped me up, and sent me on my way. The next day I was at my own doctor, and a week later I was getting a CT scan and seeing a neurologist. I've been on medication ever since. My doctor sent that ER doctor a strongly worded FU email for assuming I was on drugs.
I'm still kind of embarrassed by having to haul myself into an ER, but it was the right thing to do.

Prior to that, my last visit was Dec. 31, 1994 when I broke my leg.
I'm plenty klutzy, though.. cutting myself with a chainsaw, breaking my nose more than once, concussions, etc.
 
Last edited:
First night in our new home in Albuquerque. 3 AM shuffle down the hallway to the bathroom when a hallway table introduces itself to my foot. I looked down and my entire big toenail is peeled back like a banana. Yes it hurts just as much as you think it would, which is why I was sent to the front of the line in a room full of OD tweekers at the ER
As a vet of at least 10 ER visits for shoulder dislocations (from diving for balls while at SS, had two surgeries), I learned the louder you scream, faster you are seen in ER.
 
Almost 10 years ago at my parents' house in Florida. Marble bathroom tiles 1-Mike 0. Broken wrist and several head cuts.
 
I was 23 or so. Party got out of control and I poured a beer on my best friend’s head because I thought it would be funny. He didn’t find it funny. Instead of whipping my ass, he went off to a bedroom to cool off. I was apologizing through the door when he opened it and it caught my forehead just right. I was drunk enough to where it didn’t hurt, but all of a sudden his face changed and he was like, “Dude, you’re bleeding.” My then-wife took me to the ER at like 3 am, where I got five stitches, no anesthesia needed. Doc looked at me like I was an idiot, but he said, “This isn’t the dumbest thing I’ve seen tonight.”
 
Slipped on a tile floor in a convenience store in August 2019. Broke my arm just below the shoulder. Ortho said I was lucky the break was clean or I would have had shoulder replacement. First and hopefully only ambulance ride and ER visit.

Found out someone in the back tipped over a mop bucket and it leaked into the store.
I hope you at least got a free drink.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top