What's your craziest childhood injury?

[CanuckAmok]

I have two:

When I was two, I fell out of a moving Mini-Moke onto my head. I was covered in so much of my own blood (from what turned out to be a small cut on my forehead, that an elderly eyewitness to the incident had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital in the same ambulance as me (we both survived).

Incidentally, for those of you who are wondering, this is a Mini-Moke:



It's basically an Austin Mini with a Jeep-style body. It was created as a prototype to replace the Land Rover for the British Army, but even they thought it was to stupid and cute for military service, so they were only made in small quantities, for the civilian market. Please not the absence of doors and seat-belts... now observe the following equation:

Toddler + Mini-Moke - Seat-belts and doors + Centrifugal Force = Amusing Anecdote.

When I was in 11th Grade, I was walking through a hall doorway at my school, at precisely the same time as someone "slapped" the doorway hard enough to cause a 5' x 8' wooden framed painting of the Fathers of Confederation hung above the doorway to fall and land squarely on my head, knocking me cold.

Incidentally, for those of you who are wondering, this is a painting of the Fathers of Confederation:



Yes, indeed, they are as heavy as they look. This is not a reproduction of the painting which fell on me; this is an image of the Fathers of Confederation at the London Conference, 1866. The painting which fell on me was a reproduction of one made in 1867, on the occasion of the Act of Confederation.

On its way down, the brass plate identifying the painting clipped the bridge of my nose, requiring five stitches to close (I still have the scar). It just so happened that this incident occurred in the History/Law hall, and one of the Law teachers, a retired lawyer, ran out of his class screaming "You can't sue! You can't sue!". Unfortunately, I had no cause to doubt him, so I didn't sue. I probably could have had millions from the School Board. Ah well, 20/20 hindsight!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wax floors...wall radiators...2-year-old me running in socks.

Forehead smack, blood, stitches, scar. :-)

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. At age 9, I feel off a laundry basket backwards into a 4 poster bed

lodging a bobby pin into my head. I didn't realize I was bleeding because I was busy getting into major trouble for standing on a laundry basket in the first place. :hi:

[metisnation]

5. bit clear

through my tongue playing soccer and had to have stitches.

[pfitz59]

3. Stuck one of these through my foot.......

Playing "mumbly peg"!

[eyesroll]

4. I got hit in the head with a water ski

I was sitting in the boat, at the dock -- I was the person who was supposed to watch the skier and convey any instructions to the boat's pilot. (I was 10 and in summer camp.)

Someone walked along the dock with a pair of water skis and dropped one. Smack!

A bit of disorientation and a nasty bump was about it. (I told my parents in a letter -- turns out the camp never bothered to call them and BOY were they pissed....)

[Whitacre D_WI]

6. Bursitis in my right elbow.

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. When I was 5 or 6

I was running in socks and I slid right into the corner of a wooden table...missed my eye by less than a half an inch...still have a nice scar today

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Not me. My sister was tobogganing and the sled went over an exposed

big rock. The toboggan split where she was sitting and consequently she had two huge "splinters" in her buttocks that had to be surgically removed and stitches put in because of the gaping holes.

My sister also hit her head on the ground, bending over on a slow-moving park train a few years before the toboggan incident. More stitches.

I just had a generic greenstick broken arm.

[Samurai_Writer]

9. My thumb was nearly severed...

when I was 2 years old. My cousin, who was my age, dropped a brick on it (the sharp corner of the brick, to be precise). My grandmother, who was watching us at the time and was not the brightest woman, used scotch tape to tape my thumb up. I still have a horrendous scar that goes almost all the way around my thumb, and that thumb is bigger and wider (like it was squashed flat -- duh). When my parents came back from their trip they about had a heart attack.

Good news is I went on to become a professional musician (piano, keyboards), despite my 'deformity'.

[Xithras]

10. Me, 10 years old, jumped off tall fence into a bunch of high weeds

and impaled my foot on a 10" broken tine from an old pitchfork. To make it worse, I had to walk nearly a MILE to get help with this rusty 10 inch spike sticking though my foot.

When I was 12, I used to get in BB gun wars with my stepbrothers (we had a "two pump" limit). One of my brothers got pissed off at the other one day, pumped the gun WAY up, and took aim at my other brothers butt at about 50 feet (that would have REALLY stung, but done no real damage). Unfortunately for me, I picked just the wrong spot, and the wrong moment, to pop up and take a shot of my own. His BB caught me just above the right ear, punched through the skin, and ended up sliding around between the skin and my skull. It didn't really hurt all that much so I kept playing with it...sliding it around my head with my fingers. By the time the doctors finally extracted it, it was just above my LEFT ear :)

[Atman]

11. Anvil fell on my head

Knocked into dad's workbench...it wasn't secured properly, obviously. LOTS of blood, seven stitches. Now that my hair has receded, you can see my scar!

Helps explain several things...like my love for Wile E. Coyote. And being a democrat.

[Wcross]

12. Lightning strike- age 13

I was sitting on on picnic table with metal legs. I had one ass cheek on a bolt, my foot in a puddle. The table was next to a big tree. All I remember was being thrown 15 feet from the table into a tent, I remember peeking out the flap thinking "WTF" was that?" Got some good burns on my toe and ass. I was embarrassed and "forgot" to mention the burn on my ass when I got to the hospital.

[teach1st]

13. Tripping at age 14

I was 14 and tripping in a part of town I had no business being in. I got jumped by four men who wanted the (one dollar thrift store) chain around my neck. A kick in the eye from one of the men tore my tear duct. The redneck cop who first responded told me, "Son, yer gonna lose that eye." Blood was everywhere, but it seemed rather plastic to me, though awfully red and shiny.

At the hospital after the groovy ambulance ride (no siren) the masked robot doctors said they couldn't knock me out, because I had to keep my eyelids open during the surgery. They applied a local and I had my trip on the operating table staring at that god-awful, huge green surgery light that morphed several ways while the robots stitched me up. My arms, I think, were strapped to the operating table. Oh, it was a trip all right!

My parents showed up but they never let on that they knew I was high. I figured I had gotten away with my drug-taking. My mother finally told me this year that the doctor had indeed told her I was almost certainly high.

[southerngirlwriter]

14. first broken bone, age 9

Remember slip n slides? The products that actually made it past corporate liability lawyers? The thin sheet of plastic that an adult spreads on the ground and then sprays with a hose so that CHILDREN can run and hurl their bodies toward a slippery piece of plastic on the fucking ground?

Remember those, damnit???

Well, ours had a hole. My index finger slid right into the hole. It stopped. The rest of me kept going.

[Milspec]

19. Just two words..

The products that actually made it past corporate liability lawyers?

Lawn Darts. Were they called Jarts?

[southerngirlwriter]

20. Never heard of 'em.

What are/were they?

[Milspec]

25. Lawn Darts. Damn I'm getting old

Effective December 19, 1988, all lawn darts are banned from sale in the United States. Lawn darts, used in an outdoor game, have been responsible for the deaths of 3 children.

A set of lawn darts usually includes four large darts and two targets. The darts typically are about 12 inches long with a heavy metal or weighted plastic tip on one end and three plastic fins on a rod at the other end. The darts are intended to be grasped by the rod and thrown underhand toward a target. While the tip may not be sharp enough to be obviously dangerous, these darts can cause skull punctures and other serious injuries.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission urges parents to discard or destroy all lawn darts immediately. They should not be given away since they may be of harm to others.

Consumers who find lawn darts still being sold, should contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the toll free hotline: [phone]-CPSC (2772). A teletypewriter for the hearing impaired is available at 1-800-638-8270. Consumers also may write to: Compliance, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, D.C. 20207

[vajraroshana]

39. my brother went to the hospital because of those

deranged things. Of course we weren't playing with them the right way. We found out that if you throw them low down across the street that they would spark as they skimmed the pavement. So we were on opposite sides of the street throwing the damned things when one comes sailing into my brother's foot.

[tridim]

15. Fell out of a car when I was 6

My mom was turning a corner and the unlatched door flew open. This was before seat belts and child seats were the norm, so of course I reached over to try to close the door and the G-force pulled me out. Being a gymnast I instinctively rolled into a ball and somersaulted across 4 lanes of heavy traffic missing several cars, ending up on the opposite curb. I only skinned my knee, otherwise I didn't have a scratch. I actually think it injured my mom more than it did me. She was a wreck..

I guess my worst injury was a split skull from tripping on the stoop while running away from my brother who was shooting me with a water gun. It required 24 stitches.. Thankfully it's mostly hidden by my hair, although it still makes my bangs grow out a bit funky.

[camero]

16. Fell on my head on a parking bumper-age 12

At a movie theater lot. Lots of blood. I got to see the Original Star Wars for free though. :)

[Milspec]

17. I was 12 years old.....

and part of a "living manger" scene at my church. I had to take a wizz & the church door was locked. Instead of going around to the school I went behind a bush to pee. Unfortunately I pissed directly onto a broken LIVE floodlight. Be assured that urine is conductive! No real damage but it interrupted the personal relationship I had just begun with "Little Rob" for a few days

[SiobhanClancy]

18. My first broken arm from a riding accident,age 9,then...

on the way to the ER,got in a car accident and broke my leg. Believe it or not..it was Friday the 13th.

[Donkeyboy75]

21. When I was two,

I loved dropping the lid to the pressure cooker my parents had, and watching it wobble until it stopped...then I'd do it again. Side note: I also loved playing with calculators. (The docs feared I was autistic at first for this and a few other reasons).

Anyway, I got so entranced by the wobbling of the lid to the pressure cooker that I fell right onto the sharp edge, slicing clean through the skin between my nose and upper lip (I still have a scar).

[VelmaD]

22. Too many to count

There was diving headfirst off a chair onto the blue area rug in the living room when I was almost 2 because I wanted to be like the divers in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

There are the matching mirror image scars my brother and I have from runnning into the coffee table. After I did it my mom moved the coffee table. So of course my little brother managed to hit it running the oposite direction through the house and got a scar on the oposite eyebrow from the one I got.

Or there's my trick shoulder. I dislocated it playing basketball when I was about 10 or 11. I was coming down with a rebound and got tangled with another girl. Ended up landing with most of my weight on my shoulder and it popped out. I popped it right back in and kept on playing. I can pop it in and out at will now.

Or there's the time I got the rock stuck in my hand. That's probably the weirdest. My little brother and I would take the dog out for a walk and ride along next to her on a skateboard. Well, I hit a patch of gravel and went flying. Landed on my hand and got a rock stuck in it. My parents, both of whom worked at a hospital, spent an hour trying to dig it out instead of taking me to the emergency room. :eyes: Eventually we went to the ER, they drugged me up, dug it out, and sent me home.

[DoNotRefill]

23. I once got trapped in a dumpster....

and almost died.

Another time I got stuck under a teeter totter. I was wet from swimming, we were swinging on it, I slipped off, and it came back over me. The screws protruding from the underside ripped me up pretty bad.

Another time I got cut by a chainsaw when it kicked back. It left a gash maybe 8 inches long and down to the bone.

Another time I had my leg practically ripped off while riding an ATV. It was hanging on by a piece of flesh less than an inch in diameter. They reattached it.

I once fell off of a cliff I was climbing. Dropped about 40 feet onto stone. Ouch.

I once got second to third degree sunburn on my face. My entire face cracked and supporated. Every time I'd go to sleep, my face would end up glued to the pillow. I would have to get in the shower and stand under the water to "unstick" it and get my eyes to be able to open. It wasn't particularly painful, but it's pretty bizarre, so I included it.

I once "caught" a thrown beer bottle with my forehead. It was a thin bottle and shattered, cutting up my face pretty good.

I once got shot in the head with a .25 ACP pistol at extremely close range. It gave me a bitchin headache.

I once got stabbed in the chest with a bootknife. It collapsed my lung.

I once got almost half of my ribcage caved in with an aluminum baseball bat.

These all happened before I was 21. There are a bunch more, but I'm tired of typing.

[nini]

29. GOOD LORD

I would've need heavy meds if I was your mom!

:-)

[DoNotRefill]

34. She never found out about most of them....

Some she did, like the ATV accident, but many were handled quietly, and she never found out about them.

I did my best to stay away from home as much as possible due to it being a very abusive environment, and my being gone from the house for a week or more wasn't unusual. For a lot of the stuff, my older sister acted as my parent dealing with the police and doctors, and my mom and stepfather were none the wiser.

[nini]

37. I just noticed your sig line... Congrats!

Hopefully, your child will not be as accident prone as you. :-)


Sorry, about the abusive upbringing, obviously your sister filled a void for you - thankfully.

[DoNotRefill]

43. Thanks!

That's what it taught us....we covered for each other.

[Milspec]

41. Hi DoNotRefill

Wow thats quite a bit of bad "luck". You don't happen to live in the valley do you. If so I might move back to West L.A. LOL!

[DoNotRefill]

44. Nah....I'm East Coast....

and I don't do high-risk stuff like that any more. It DOES explain why I legally carry a gun, though...

Just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you....

:evilgrin:

[LynneSin]

24. I have a scar where I dropped a beer mug - I was 13 at the time

Ironically there was no beer in it. It was this giant size "Pabst Blue Ribbon" mug that I won at a carnival (I didn't know what beer tasted like and heck it was the Blue Ribbon of beers) and I used it to keep my make up (all 6 pieces - now I have hundreds of different types of makeup - I'm a junkie) in it.

Well I dropped the mug on my knee and it cracked. My mother heard me screaming and rushed in with these kind and loving words "YOU BETTER NOT HAVE GOTTEN ANY BLOOD ON THE CARPETING". But she also took me to the doc for 3 stitches. I still have a scar!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

26. I was probably 10

and living in Kansas. We had no basement, so whenever the tornado sirens went off my mom freaked out and herded us across the street to the neighbors' house. One evening as I was in my jammies the siren went off, and she yelled at me to get to my room to put my clothes on (as if it mattered what I was wearing!) As I went careening around the corner on the way to my room I crashed into the fan and cut my toe on the stand. I still have a little scar on my toe. Thanks, Mom! In her defense, she was chased in her car by the 1958 El Dorado tornado, so her panic was understandable.

The only other injuries I can recall were jamming my finger playing softball and running barefoot in a baseball game at the aforementioned neighbors' and cutting my foot on glass. Fortunately, I've never broken a bone or had to have stitches (KNOCKING ON WOOD FURIOUSLY).

[Kahuna]

27. At age six, I pulled a china cabinet on myself. Even though it was full

at the time I didn't get cut up too badly. There's only one visible scar on my lip. And another scar under my chin. Lucky me! :7

At 14, I got flash burns from lighting a gas stove. That was painful. But I escaped that one without any permanent scars.

Then there was the time.... Nevermind.. I could write a book!

[nini]

28. Ran NAKED from my Grandma's bathtub..

.. out of the bathroom, across the wood floor hit an area rug on the floor and fell butt first on the floor heater. I had a nice grid design burn scar on my ass for years. I was about 3 years old then,


My aunt still asks me if I still have that scar. :P

[TrogL]

30. Put a knife through my thumb

[Kahuna]

31. Damn! You had to ask. How can I sleep after reading these..

stories!!! :scared:

[nini]

33. It's amazing some of these people survived childhood

:-)

[DoNotRefill]

36. Who said we survived? My motto was:

"That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger. That which does kill me makes me Undead."

:evilgrin:

[Zomby Woof]

32. a hatchet right in the forehead

The breeze felt good passing through my eye socket though...

[vajraroshana]

35. I was 3

and was at my neighbors. The kids were practicing their fishing-rod skills with a hook and a weight. One of them cast and "caught" me on my right eyebrow. Ow!

[AlFrankenFan]

38. When I was in second grade

I was living in Colorado, and I was climbing on this arch monkey bar thing (I don't know how else to describe it) and of course, there's snow on the ground and the bars are icy and slippery, stupid me. I try to get off, but I slip and the bar hits right in between my legs. As you can imagine, it was very painful (luckly I'm not a boy :P) and I fell on the ground and lie there in the snow until an aide came over about ten minutes later and asked what was wrong. Oy.

[gate of the sun]

40. My brother tried to cut yarn I'd wrapped too tightly around my arm

with a butcher knife and stabbed me in the eye. Luckily I just had a few cuts in the white of my eye. I could never figure out why there was more than one cut. I was about 6. Another freak accident also involving my eye I was about 13 and camping I was holding on to the trunk of a tree swing around and a stick went in my eye. Instead of piercing my eye it went between my eye and the socket the twig broke off and i had this stick sticking out of my eye. My Dad pulled it out. I count myself lucky I still have my eye sight.

[nini]

46. oh this is the one that will give me nightmares.

ANYTHING with the eyes gives me the creeps!

major case of the heebie jeebies starting.........

[youngred]

42. I ripped everything in my left knee to shreds

I used to stunt bike (bmx). One day while doing a tailwhip (balance on the front wheel while kicking the back half of the bike all the way around in a circle) my foot slipped and got caught in the middle of the bike. It took my leg with it ripping every single part of my knee apart. Had to give up biking (which I loved) and finished my hockey and soccer careers too. I was on crutches for 6 months and the doctor said I was lucky to still be walking

Also, when I was 7 I attempted to jump over a stone fence, regrettably I didn't make it slicing a thin sliver of bone off my shin which I have to this day.

I tried to pick up the sharp side of a campbells soup can (before the pop tops) and sliced my finger straight to the bone.

Got a thrid degree sunburn all across my shoulders and back (note to other redheads, don't sit in the pool for 8 hours. I couldn't put on a shirt or go outside for a month, ruined my summer vaca and left me witha bunch of odd scars on my back and shoulders.

Was playing Hockey and got boarded into a concrete wall which knocked me out for about half an hour. and left a nice gash on my cheek which thankfully left no scars

was stung on the eyeball by a bee.

went diving for a header in soccer and connected with the ball (for a goal) and the goalpost (for a trip to the ER)

was racing slalom down a big hill on my bike when near the bottom of athe hill a squirrel ran out in front of the bike. I swerved to avoid it and went launching face first over the handle bars. I left a 10 inch streak of skin from my armand face on the pavement

[TOhioLiberal]

45. I have 2....

Strangely enough they both are a result of roller-skating.

1. At the end of the year (6th grade)my teacher took our class to the local roller-skating rink. I lost my balance, went down face first. Took a hunk of skin out of my chin that took 5 stitches to close. I thought my mom was going to faint when she heard!

2. A year later I was visiting my dad, He decided to take me and my youger sister roller-skating. Fell down again (geez what a klutz..) on my ass this time, tried to stop from falling by putting my hand out. Wound up spraining (not my wrist) but my ELBOW!! Couldn't bend it for a week.

As a result, I pretty much gave up roller-skating. When inline skates came out I was tempted, but figured I have enough trouble with 'regular' skates, if I tried them I'd probably kill myself...

Trekkerlass

[Milspec]

47. OK Friends

Signing off now & hope I forget this thread before I go to sleep. However one last story.
My Mom was 43 when I was born in 1951. As an "older" Mom she did not let me out of her sight until I was about 2 1/2. She decided to leave me in the care of dad & went shopping. Dad passed out and that day I ate a mothball. Still remember the stomach pump. ( Anyone remember mothballs?)

[anti_shrub]

48. I have a few

1. I ran up the stairs and caught my shoulder on a protruding nail, still have the scar from that.

2. While trying to learn to roller skate, I took a header in my gravel driveway. Luckily I was able to break my fall with my hands. Unluckily I was picking gravel from my hands all night. I still have faint buckshot-looking marks on the palms of my hands.

3. In what must be a rite of passage for redheads, I got second degree sunburn on my shoulders and back, and I wasn't able to move my arms for a month and a half.

[youngred]

49. Doesn't it suck being a redhead sometimes?

I already have (benign) tumors on my arms from the sun.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

50. got shot in the ass with rock salt

when I was a kid for stealing watermellons...I suppose that would count!

theProdigal

[grannylib]

51. Stepped on a rake and punctured my foot in 5 places; that was

nasty. They had to put novocain in each hole and scrape out rust and sand and all...it was a nightmare. I was about 8.
Broke two fingers shooting pool when I was 18, then cracked a bone in each wrist playing frisbee a week later *lol*
Oh...and once I leaned up against a percolator while wearing a sundress (I was sitting on the kitchen counter, I was about 5) and tore a big chunk of skin off my back where it burned right onto the coffeepot; that one sucked. (on edit)

[DemOverseas]

52. During recess

while in the third grade, I was dared to stick my tongue on the metal fence post. Yip! Freezing temperatures in the State of Maine. They ripped my tongue off from the post. It wasn't pleasant.

[AngryAmish]

53. Threw half a brick at a squirrel in a tree

I was too young to understand gravity. Right back on my head.

Then I popped a wheelie with a bike with fresh welds, the handlebars down to the front wheel came off, and I landed groin first on the crossbar.

Then they installed new curbs on the next block over. I decided to ride down the hill and jump one on my bike. I did not notice that they had also installed new light poles. I hit the light pole in mid-air, knocking myself out and bloodying my face.