Injury Epi- How a Kitchen Knife Fell on my Foot!

In lieu of discussing injury epi in class last Wednesday, I deemed it reasonable to write my blog this week on an injury I myself experienced a little over a year ago.  In class we discussed how the word “accident” is politically incorrect because an “accident” implies that the act is random or unavoidable, when in reality there is a cause and effect for everything and almost, if not every “accident,” can be avoided or prevented.  Instead, of using the term accident, it is more accurate to use words such as “injury,” “car crash,” “collision,” etc.  So as for my “injury…”

In late August, summer of 2012, I had a horrific event take place -- I had a very large kitchen knife fall onto my right BARE FOOT. At the time I immediately went into shock, but luckily both my parents were in the kitchen when the event took place so they were able to assist me.  It didn’t bleed too much but, looking at the cut, my parents and I knew it was serious.  My mom took me to a Med Express where they asked me to move my big toe, and sadly I was not able to do so.  As a result, I was referred to a foot surgeon in fear that I had cut through to a tendon or worse, bone.  Again, I was lucky to have been referred to the doctor I was. His office was quite nearby and he was able to see me fairly soon.  An x-ray showed the bone was not cut  or broken, but he had me go in for an MRI that evening to get a look at the tendon before jumping into surgery.  Test results weren’t clear but he felt sure the tendon was at least torn and that surgery was in order.   My doctor told me this not only meant I had to have surgery, but that after surgery I would not be able to put ANY pressure on my right foot for the next 6 weeks, and that if I did I could easily re-injury the tendon, and have to start back at square one with a second surgery.  He temporarily stitched it up and three days later I had surgery where he discovered the tendon had been completely severed.   

Injured foot after surgery-- pretty gross!

Now let me remind you, this all happened in late August, about a week before it was time to move back to JMU for the fall of my sophomore year.  Knowing I would have to be on crutches for 6 weeks and that I could easily reinjure myself was extremely nerve racking.  I even debated taking off a semester, but with the support from my friends and family I decided to take each day as a challenge and came back to JMU on crutches.  Those next 6 weeks of classes were probably the most difficult 6 weeks of my life.  I was challenged everyday physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I was in pain often and felt depressed and hopeless. My arms ached from crutching around campus, heavy backpack on my shoulders, hopping up and down stairs in buildings with broken elevators, waiting for the disability bus that sometimes was very late.  With every little bump or stretch, I feared I had reinjured my foot.  While I had support from friends, professors, classmates and my family, it was still a difficult time. When I was not in class, I was bed ridden and felt trapped.  I couldn’t get to the dining hall or many other places, and was often alone.  Finally, 6 weeks had come and gone and I was off crutches for good!  I did, however, have to go to physical therapy for a few weeks to regain strength and flexibility in my foot, as the tendon was now shorter and very stiff from being immobile for so long.  Looking back now, it is just another page in my book of life, but it is certainly a more memorable one, and with good reason! 

Crutches didn't stop me from going to the football games!

Now looking at the nitty gritty of the epi triad with injury it’s time to see how my injury could have been prevented and avoided. The environment was the kitchen, the human was Jenna (me!), and the agent was the knife. 

That day, my parents had been slicing tomatoes for lunch and I went to grab a loaf of bread behind the cutting board, and knocked the knife right off the counter and onto my foot. The first thing that could have been changed was not leaving the kitchen knife on the counter out.  The second and probably more important thing, though, is that I should not have been barefoot in the kitchen knowing there are knives as well as other sharp objects that can be potentially harmful.  We were also all reaching around each other trying to make our own sandwiches.  We should have waited.  In the end, the injury occurred, but it is something that could have been prevented had certain factors been changed.