# Accidents and recovery



## Asura Levi (Nov 4, 2013)

Ok, I have on Character, Kyle, who had an accident while working in the construction of a huge bridge to get his freedom back.

He was left with a broken leg, some broken ribs and the need to amputate his left hand.

As I want to make it more or less close to reality, I was wondering who long a person usually recover from this kind of wounds enough to walk by itself, and how long might take after to fully back in his pre-accident normal condition.

That will be no sequel from the broken leg/ribs, just the missing left hand.


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## GeekDavid (Nov 4, 2013)

What's the technology level of your world?


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## Svrtnsse (Nov 4, 2013)

Friend of mine broke her leg a while back and had to use crutches to walk for the entire summer. I guess it can vary a bit depending on how bad it is though.


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## Asura Levi (Nov 4, 2013)

The tech level is mostly medieval with some magitek, that is 'healing' magic but is nothing instantaneous and affect only superficial wounds.

I had in mind in get the fever resulted from infect wound (amputated hand) to be the main cause of his 'long recovery', a whole season might work for it, but I need to know best about how screwed he is after staying that long at bed.


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## Svrtnsse (Nov 4, 2013)

My spontaneous reaction is that if he's working in order to get his freedom back he's probably some kind of prisoner which may very well be similar to slave labor. This in turns makes me wonder what kind of medical treatment he's really entitled to, if any. If he doesn't get good treatment then his injuries may very well be bothering him for the rest of his life - or he may die in the fever (but I'm assuming that won't happen).
If he's bed ridden for a long time he'll be fairly weak when he gets back on his feet. The time it takes to get into shape is dependent on how good shape he was in originally. If he previously was strong and healthy, he'll have an easier time of it than if he's never really done any exercise.


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## Asura Levi (Nov 4, 2013)

He is a blacksmith, and his superiors were quite impressed with the his work as some of his ideas make it easier/faster/cheaper to construct said bridge, so he quite fell on the good side of the ones responsible for him.
Also, his age, forgot to mention, is late twenties early thirties.

As I mention before, I want it quite close to reality, but as that is some 'magic' involved, it doesn't need to be exactly real, just a close call, but I need to get an idea of how long he would be get to his former self. 
Since he will be completely on his own and travelling away from the place where he is now, by means of his own strength.


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## Svrtnsse (Nov 4, 2013)

Sounds good to me. 

I think that if you want to keep it close to reality your best bet is to check with someone who has some medical experience, like if you know someone who's a nurse or a doctor or such. Asking here will give you a reasonably accurate answer - something you can use when working on the idea/outline, but for the final story you'll want to check with someone who knows what they're talking about.


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## GeekDavid (Nov 4, 2013)

Svrtnsse said:


> Sounds good to me.
> 
> I think that if you want to keep it close to reality your best bet is to check with someone who has some medical experience, like if you know someone who's a nurse or a doctor or such. Asking here will give you a reasonably accurate answer - something you can use when working on the idea/outline, but for the final story you'll want to check with someone who knows what they're talking about.



Physical therapist would be a good person to check with too.


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## GeekDavid (Nov 4, 2013)

Then again, there's always that world wide web thingy.

Broken leg recovery time? - Yahoo! Answers

Time to Heal Broken Bones, Fractures

Recovery From a Broken Fibula | eHow


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## Asura Levi (Nov 4, 2013)

After looking through your links GeekDavid, 3~4 months seems good enough, also fits the fact that once he move leaves and sees the 'pharaonic' construction, it is almost finished. This also gives a new level of detail I hadn't though, the changing of season.

Just still not sure about how long more his atrophied muscles would take, but I guess, 'once he is able to move by himself', from this point on, would take that long. It will take a while to fully recover but not as much to be unnoticeable by others. (guessing).

So, thank you all for the help.


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## Penpilot (Nov 4, 2013)

For hand amputation, depends what you mean by recovery. If you amputate his hand, IMHO he'd be more or less exactly the same except he has to deal with not having a hand, which can be a longer process. 

As for muscle recovery, part of it can depend on how much muscle he had to begin with. I have experience losing muscle. I got diagnosed with a hyperthyroid... long story short... I lost 20lbs of muscle. It has taken me a month and a half of skating 3 times a week (I'm a hockey player) and weight training the other four to get up to around 75% of what I was before. At the low point I was like an old man, knees aching going up and down stairs, feeling wobbly when I walked. I couldn't even do one push up.


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## Yellow (Nov 8, 2013)

Also, take into account psychological damage. Depending on how the wounds happened, his personality, his background, and his habits, a character might suffer greatly from having to adapt to his wounds, not so much physically, but in his mind. To some people defeat would be much more painful than a few broken ribs, or the failure to protect someone could cause feelings of guilt and helplessness which may be much more hampering, in the long run, than the purely antomical consequences of the wounds. Heck, the time of his physical recovery might even be negatively impacted by such mental "scars". Or not. It all depends on who your character is and why he was wounded, but it is an interesting factor to consider.


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## A. E. Lowan (Nov 9, 2013)

Bear in mind also that if your setting is basically Medieval, mid-twenties to thirties isn't as young as we consider it to be today.  Life expectancy was shorter during that period, so with the life of hard labor and inadequate/inconsistent nutrition of an indentured laborer in his thirties (no matter how many brownie points he's racked up with his superiors, he hasn't always been this flush) he's got the body of a middle-aged man, not a young man, and will heal and look like one.


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## Sam Evren (Nov 11, 2013)

I know this isn't exactly what you're asking about, but it's something you might want to consider.

Being debilitated for more than a couple of weeks has, in my experience, a psychological/emotional toll that ramps up over time. The longer you go past that first 2 weeks, the worse the feeling gets.

There are feelings of uselessness, of hopelessness, of guilt. You see things being done that you should have been able to do and there is an internal self-flagellation that is quite depressing.

Friends will want to help you, and you'll want to let them, but each time they help is also a reminder of something that you, yourself, can't do. (There's that guilt.)

And this is in the most ideal of circumstances. I can't even begin to imagine what someone working for their freedom would feel upon finding themselves suddenly broken.


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## Asura Levi (Nov 11, 2013)

He was really 'broken', the project was in its final stages and so his conclusion was that he would be kept at jail while the others would be getting freedom.
He got better though. My biggest worry is now his overall muscle recovery by being at bed for so long, how long it would be noticeable for strangers that he is weak.

As it was pointed out, he might never go back to his old-self but only a few know his old-self anyway


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