I always knew that racquetball was a dangerous sport, and have been injured quite a few times too, but never knew that it is not just racquetball, but many sports which involve overhead activities are dangerous to you if you have a loose shoulder, even plain swimming !!!
The person playing racquetball today was trying to "win the lost game" when this story happened. He tried to smash a shot against the wall with a full force of his overhead swing of the racquet and the unexpected happened. He ended up with a dislocated shoulder and was also unable to move the arm due to extreme pain.
His friends had to rush him to the Emergency Room (ER). I was one of them. I had never been to a ER before and had never seen all those cardiac and respiratory monitors in live action. It was all just fascinating. But, for my friend, the victim, it was pure torture even after reaching the ER. He was not even allowed to drink water, in fear of vomiting due to saline and sedatives that were being administered. Finally, he fell asleep due to the effect of the drugs.
The doctor then came in and pushed back the arm in place. Well, the placing back took hardly like 10 secs, but the entire process before that was just (I can just guess here) plain "WTH is going on here.... when will I be taken care of...." kind of time.
When the doc was pushing back the arm into place, we were allowed to stay in the ER and the scene was something like this. My friend was completely knocked out due to the sedatives, but we friends were all cringing, since the doctor was turning his arm around to place it back. We were afraid that our friend was getting hurt. It was an awful scene, but thankfully short-lived and the operation (if I can call it that) was successful.... As someone said "All's well that ends well".
The drug wore off after less than 10 mins and my friend was awake again and we teased him that he had been asleep for like 8 hrs straight. Being the smart-ass (pardon the usage of words) that he is and the dumbos that we are, little did we think that there was a clock on the wall in the ER right on the opposite wall where his bed was placed and he didn't in the least bit believe us. Whatever it was, even after such an incident, we were still able to laugh and have fun and amuse ourselves. I guess its just human nature which leads us on and makes us forget our worries just so we can get through bad times and move on wherever life takes us. I guess GOD made us that way.
Anyway, all in all it was a happy ending to a bad start of an evening. We all finally got back home, settled our friend down for the night and went back to our respective houses. Everything should be back to normal tomorrow. We might have to take the friend to an orthopedist to get his shoulder and arm checked, but I am sure the visit will go well.
Wising my friend well !!!
-- So
