BROKEN BONES, BATH ROOMS, BRAIN INJURIES

BROKEN BONES

This blogger fractured his ankle in 1996 by falling in a ditch dug by Municipal workers for laying drainage pipes. The global practice may vary, but in India they do not keep any red lamps or flags or boards to caution the passers by. Still this blogger is fortunate, just one bone is fractured. In Cities like Kolkata or Hyderabad, people disappear into manholes suddenly and their bodies may float in a murky channel 20 km. downstream.

Apart from the modern medicine consisting of the Super Speciality Hospitals and Orthopaedic Surgeons, traditional bone setters can be found all over India. They use paste of herbal leaves and oils for dressing the wound with bandage after gently massage and adjusting the injured parts with hands. This art has a custom of several centuries; in those days the bonesetters were attending to injured soldiers at the battleground.

While this blogger went to the modern surgeon for the bonesetting and spent a lot, a poor friend who received similar injuries went to an old illiterate traditional boneman, unable to bear the demands of the greedy surgeon. Both have taken the same 3 to 6 six months for treatment. Cost alone was the difference.

BATH ROOMS

More and more bath rooms are using ceramic glazed tiles or some marble or granite tiles. All these materials are too smooth and have a tendency to slip. The number of people falling and consequently receiving injuries is increasing.

This blogger has thought that he is lucky in having a common bath room of just 6 ft. x 6 ft. with a rugged surface, with no chance of falling. There is no space to wash clothes.

Washing clothes and cleaning utensils is done just at the entrance of the bath room, using hands and detergents. After the work is completed, the place is cleaned using a scrubber brush.

One day when the dish washing was in progress, this blogger came out of the bath room and fell outside the entrance in the corridor. The back side of the head hit a concrete surface very hard. For about 10 to 15 seconds, there was a sensation of receiving an electric shock of 220 volts electric current. Got up after fifteen seconds slowly and limped back to the living room. There was a bump of the size of a lemon. About 100 ml. of blood flowed making stains all over the garments.

Neighbours advised consulting a doctor, thereafter a brain specialist or neurologist, as according to them a 15 minutes electric shock like sensation would have paralysed the body.

Afraid of the CAT scanning and MRI scan which are very expensive, (they have become a norm for treatment of anything to do with head), this blogger took the risk and did not consult anybody.

The pain was excessive. But bearing it was thought to be better than the slow-violence we get in hospitals.

CORRECTIVE STEPS

One rubber door mat with uneven surface design and deep grooves has been kept at the entrance of the bath room. Not slippery.

BRAIN INJURIES

Cerebellum deals with muscle and balance coordination. Ataxia (Dictionary.com : Loss of the ability to coordinate muscular movement. Also called dyssynergia, incoordination.) may result when there is injury to cerebellum. Eating, talking, walking and other self care tasks may suffer.

This blogger wanted to wait till something really happened, hoping that nothing will happen. Man lives on hope.