I listened to a professor tell me about the time he was hit by a driver that had fallen asleep at the wheel.
He was sitting on the back of his truck, parked, and well off the road. She swerved off the road, ran over the highway guard rail (which he believes ended up saving his life), and smashed into him, catching his leg between the two vehicles.
He was knocked into a snow drift, and fell unconscious. His foot was mangled, and his leg was blown open by the impact. On the matter of his foot, doctors told him that he could either have the foot amputated, or that he could have some vein and skin grafts taken from under his arm. When they TRIED to do the grafts in a 6 hour surgery, the OR was so cold that he lost circulation in his foot, and they had to stop the procedure, and close him back up.
They gave him one last option to save his foot: To go to a burn ward; for 30 days, he had to take a water pick, and clean out what was left of his foot (to the bone at several points), and wait for scar tissue to form, before he could get skin grafts. He was not permitted to use any form of anesthetic or painkiller during this time due to other complications of the accident.
This was all in addition to 12 other surgeries, and daily physical therapy for 2 years.
I've been diagnosed with Major Depression, and I do have some really, really low moments, but listening to him describe all of the things that he had to go through only serves to further cement my opinion that physical pain blows mental pain out of the water.
He was sitting on the back of his truck, parked, and well off the road. She swerved off the road, ran over the highway guard rail (which he believes ended up saving his life), and smashed into him, catching his leg between the two vehicles.
He was knocked into a snow drift, and fell unconscious. His foot was mangled, and his leg was blown open by the impact. On the matter of his foot, doctors told him that he could either have the foot amputated, or that he could have some vein and skin grafts taken from under his arm. When they TRIED to do the grafts in a 6 hour surgery, the OR was so cold that he lost circulation in his foot, and they had to stop the procedure, and close him back up.
They gave him one last option to save his foot: To go to a burn ward; for 30 days, he had to take a water pick, and clean out what was left of his foot (to the bone at several points), and wait for scar tissue to form, before he could get skin grafts. He was not permitted to use any form of anesthetic or painkiller during this time due to other complications of the accident.
This was all in addition to 12 other surgeries, and daily physical therapy for 2 years.
I've been diagnosed with Major Depression, and I do have some really, really low moments, but listening to him describe all of the things that he had to go through only serves to further cement my opinion that physical pain blows mental pain out of the water.
