Many of you may recall Miles O'Brien, the former CNN Anchor. He's one of us, a pilot, who flies his SR22 as a part of his regular travels. He has reported on Aviation many times and did a segment on the Buffalo Continental crash a number of years ago. See the PBS program "Flying Cheap" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/ .

I just read his recent blog and it's worth sharing. He doesn't mention his flying future as I'm sure this is the last thing on his mind, but this is a reminder of how fast things can change (we all know this reading Crash Talk). Never take things for granted and value the present.

http://milesobrien.com/?p=3640

Holy crap that scary.

Tim

I'm not a big fan of "sad stories". Is it sad?

Yes.

Tim

Unfortunate outcome that probably would have been avoided in the US.

Spoiler alert.

While in the Philippines for work, a hard case dropped on his forearm causing a bruise. Wasn't healing. Went to hospital for treatment, they wound up amputating it.

Yikes.

The shocker to him must have been that he went in under a general so it could be drained or some such thing, and he was woken up missing the arm

That would have been an unpleasant awakening.

I have no idea on the medical aspect if this, nor care in general in the Philippines....but it does sound fishy on the surface.

Not necessarily. With a delayed presentation, the outcome is often poor.

Double yikes.

It is not so much a draining as filleting the whole thing open to relieve the pressure inside of the closed off compartment in the forearm. If done early, the outcome is good, if there are a couple of hours (or days) delay, the outcomes are poor.

Some of our MD brothers can probably attest to the fact that these things happen daily all around the country!!... if it feels weird/painful then seek medical attention!!..

The story he tells is of intraop hypotension and them amputating to end the operation. Whether he got the story straight, who knows. But certainly in the US he could have been managed intraop and had an attempt at limb salvage.

Especially if your fingers or toes start to go numb.

Crush injuries and fractures are one way of getting it, another one are misadventures during the administration of intravenous contrast for CT scans .

The fasciotomy procedure (to release the internal pressure that kills nerve and muscle and artery tissues) was apparently done too late. It may have been too late because he didn't seek medical help in time, or because the diagnosis was not thought of by a doctor that saw it, or because the diagnosis wasn't made in time, or because the surgery wasn't scheduled in time....

In the USA, somebody's getting sued over this kind of case..