I've been scrolling through all the posts and to my shame I must admit that my cheeks are drenched with tears! Some of these 'accidents' are hilarious - mainly the ones from gentlemen painfully reminiscing about testicular injuries!!
My most painful experience ever was probably suffering from sinusitis, which I am now an annual sufferer of. My gums soon doubled in size and my teeth twisted and contorted in them. The pain that resulted from the mouth changes was also accompanied by severe droning headaches, a throat infection and constant ear ache. Apparently there is little the doctors can do except continue to refer me to a ENT specialist at first incidence of the condition.
I've been privy to many accidents that the sufferers of which may say was the worst pain they had ever experienced. The funniest was probably watching my then boyfriend playing basketball, jump for the basket, and then hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Not only had the guard who was jumping with him punched him right in the 'wedding vegetable', as was termed earlier, but he had also broken his Achilles tendon. While it might not have been funny to him (he spent 30 minutes rolling around on the floor waiting for the ambulance) it was perhaps one of the funniest things I had ever seen in my nearly 18 years of life.
Another occasion where I was 'fortunate' enough to view not one but two accidents was a couple of summers ago. I was doing some photography with some skaters at the skate park one afternoon with a fellow photographer. The first accident came when we were shooting some jumps and ramp work from off the floor, our cameras 'protecting our faces'. I'd finished with my skater and so we sat and joked with friends as we waited for the other pair to finish.
The skater set off down the ramp, up over the edge and soared through the air before landing the trick perfectly upon the photographer's face. Bits of camera littered the tarmac and blood poured from under its body work. The skater returned to the poor chap he'd just crushed and pulled him to his feet. With blood pouring from his nose, lips and forehead, the young man's face was impregnated with shards of plastic and tarmac. He seemed okay other than the facial injuries and the worrying amount of blood that was pooling around his feet. We dialed for an ambulance and off he went.
After seeing this accident most of us were sobered to the dangers of the skate park and photography when mixed together. We all continued to stay down the park, some only left to go to the local supermarket and buy alcohol, bread and ice lollies. On their return from the shop, my best friend, Jake, had a grin slapped upon his face as he rode into the skate park in a shopping trolley cum chariot. So proud was he with his acquisition that he decided to give up with his skateboard and ride the trolley up and over the ramps. He decided he wanted to try a half with the trolley and so three of us lugged the metal carcass up to the top of the ramp before sliding down and clambering up the other side and taking our prime viewing seats. Jake positioned the trolley on the lip of the ramp before getting in. Another friend performed final checks of the trolley before handing Jake his helmet.
Jake gave us a salute and was given one big push off of the ramp's edge. Down the ramp he shot before coming off of it half way down. The trolley chariot ploughed straight into an iron fence that surrounded the park. Clearly distressed, Jake was thrashing around in his once beloved chariot, whaling in pain. We rushed over to him, laughing our heads off. The laughing soon stopped, with a thud when another skater fainted to the floor, on sight of the mess Jake had made. Peering into the trolley cart, Jake's thigh bone had snapped clean in half and the top half had penetrated the skin completely. One of his lower leg bones had also snapped in two, and the lower half had burst through the skin covering his shin. The ambulance was called again by another skater and soon it arrived. Into the back of it piled Jake, who had blacked out soon after the accident, the young guy who had fainted at first sight of the war wound and myself, who being of the more gentle sex, had vomited violently as a result of Jake’s blood and tissue dribbling onto my shoes.
Never again will I offer to take photographs for skaters or let Jake ride in a shopping trolley.