re: How Did You Get Your Worst Injury?

Head on collision at 18. Broken ribs

4wheeler accident racing a friend in a hunting club late one night. Came to a small bridge that only could fit one of us in a turn. I tried to slow down and get behind him but I had a very heavy ice chest on the front of mine and at that speed turning or slowing down isn’t really all that easy. He made the bridge and I went off the side down into a dry creek bed about 20 feet down landing in a briar patch with the ATV landing on top of me. Concussion, 13 stitches in my head, broken rib, fractured wrist and a shattered ankle. Funny thing is I popped right up from the adrenaline running through my body to push the ATV off of me and stood up on my shattered ankle but walked just fine for all of about 5 minutes until the adrenaline wore off. My girlfriend at the time had just gotten a brand new BMW took me to the ER I remember getting out and her passenger seat looking like a murder took place from all the blood. When the doctor saw my ankle he went white and ran to the nurse to schedule me for immediate surgery. I had severed the blood supply to my foot. Fortunately I had a very good surgeon because I was getting ready to go to OTS to get my officer’s commission in a few months and I was able to still go even though I had to hide the pain when I ran on it. Still can tell you to this day when the weather is changing or if it’s about to rain because my ankle starts to throb.

i tore my shoulder trying to remove icebergs from my pool because i was too cheap to properly close the pool and i was trying to keep the pump from freezing and rupturing.

its never healed properly and it will flare up 30-60 minutes into any cardio activity which pretty much fricked up my 3-4 hour bike rides. i pretty much 'bonk' after 60 minutes as its too painful to turn the pedals when my shoulder hits a 10 on the pain scale.

I've only had arthroscopic knee surgery, so I don't count.

My wife (no pics) has a nasty one scheduled for Jan 10. It's so unusual that only one surgeon in Georgia does it and he's based at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. She is also at the maximum age of patient for which he will perform the surgery. It's a hip surgery that will take 9-12 months for a full recovery and she suffered the injury riding horses.

Tried to take a curve on Tiger Bend at 90... needless to say i didn't make it and luckily a tree was there to stop me...

Fall 1984

Playing mud football because our flag football game was canceled. I slid into the biggest guy in our fraternity and we both landed on my right shoulder.

Completely destroyed it. Had to have it rebuilt before any of the tech they have today existed. The surgeon had to created a socket out of some kind of surgical tape, because there was nothing left to support the humerus. Still going almost 40 years later with barely any problems. Knock on wood.

Reading the O-T lounge.

Bike racing crashes.

Night jump at 0200 from a c-130. Was told later after I jumped out the door and the other side first jumper cleared, the red light came on. Winds were screaming on the ground. Landed so hard it dislocated my shoulder, flipped a few times and apparently it got popped back in on later contact, couldn't lift anything for weeks.