This increases damage to the surrounding tissue and can make ultimately realigning the fractured bone more difficult.įinally, a patient may experience psychological relief: seeing a straightened out leg is far less traumatic than seeing a significantly angled one. If a fracture is displaced, any level of movement can increase soft tissue damage resulting in pain.Īdditionally as the time from an initial injury passes, muscle spasms become more and more significant. In addition to providing a more effective method to splint, realigning a fractured extremity may improve the patient’s level of comfort.
What if the patient does have good pulses? Many EMS providers were taught only to realign the extremity if pulses were absent.
If it is safe to do so, realigning the patient’s extremity may make splinting easier and more effective. Many of the splints carried by EMS providers are designed to offer support in a straight line.Įven flexible, foam-covered splints provide limited support along a curve or angle. You were likely told two “important” things: Splint the patient as you find them and attempt to realign the limb only if there are absent pulses distal to the injury site.įirst, think about the possible difficultly in splinting a patient in the position you find her. Think back to your first exposure to splinting during your initial training. Often, positioning of an injured extremity, splinting, ice packs or just a kind word can reduce a patient’s perception of pain. Obviously in an ALS environment, this patient would be indicated for pharmaceutical management of pain, but what about BLS treatments for pain? While it is true that long bone fractures can result in significant blood loss, these types of hemorrhages are more frequent in fractures of the femur.Īfter ruling out immediate life threats, you can turn your attention to the patient’s comfort and stabilization for transport. Our 17-year-old patient appears mostly stable with no spinal injury or major external bleeding. In addition to the basics, confirming the presence or absence of spinal injury is of equal importance. With any trauma patient, the first areas of focus are managing the airway and breathing and controlling any major bleeding. The patient’s leg appeared angulated and you had to decide what to do next.
The remainder of her secondary exam was unremarkable except that she had lost pulses distal to the fracture. And he had been productive this fall, just two weeks ago eclipsing 150 yards on the ground in Seattle's win over the Lions.In the previous scenario, you were presented with a 17-year-old female suffering from what appears to be a fractured tibia and fibula. He exploded down the stretch in 2021, however, finishing with 749 yards and six touchdowns while averaging more than six yards per carry. Drafted 27th overall in 2018, Penny topped out at just over 400 rushing yards during his first three NFL seasons. He was also just over four games into his first full-time gig as Seattle's lead ball-carrier, taking over for former 1,000-yard rusher Chris Carson, whose own injury history forced him into retirement this offseason. Penny missed a combined 26 games from 2019-2021 due to various injuries, including an ACL tear at the end of 2019. The news unfortunately marks just the latest in a long line of serious injuries for the former San Diego State standout. "It's really just a heartbreaking loss for him," Carroll said. On Monday, Carroll confirmed to Seattle Sports 710AM that Penny broke his fibula and also injured his tibia yesterday and will require surgery. Carted off in the third quarter of Sunday's loss to the Saints, Penny suffered a "serious" ankle injury, coach Pete Carroll told reporters afterward. Rashaad Penny finished 2021 strong and started strong in 2022, but the oft-injured Seahawks running back won't be playing again for a long time.
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