One below-50 worker came to me yesterday with a complaint of pain and swelling on his left hand. On the previous day, when he was working with his fellow workmate, he accidentally hit the affected hand with that workmate's "elbow!” He didn’t bother much about the incident. What could happen following being hit by the elbow? Not iron or heavy objects!! But overnight, the area swelled up, and he started feeling pain!
On examination, I found the back side of the left hand (along the little finger) quite swollen compared to the right hand. I also didn’t think about a fracture considering the pattern of the accident. However, we decided to go for an X-ray!
To my (our) surprise, indeed there was a tiny fracture at one of the hand bones (5th metacarpal), along that of the little finger. I thought of soft tissue injury or, at max, blood collection under the skin (there was some blackening of the skin). But, I was wrong!! It was a fracture, caused by a co-worker’s elbow joint! A trivial incident but it led to a bone fracture!! How fragile we are!!!
I told him to go to the higher center to put in plaster but he didn’t want that. I suggested that he wear a wrist splint that would cover most of the hand. He agreed to buy such a wrist splint/support from the pharmacy. I also told him to give some rest (avoid firm gripping or lifting objects) to the affected hand. I hope that he can follow the advice.
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My Favorite projects/programs/communities on Hive
- We Are Alive Community and Tribe
- Ecency Mobile App, Ecency Web, and Ececny Wave
- D.Buzz microblogging platform
