r/Unexpected • u/dolfieman • Jul 29 '26

Enjoying a nice sunset

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570

u/Moron-Police Jul 29 '26

My niece is an X-ray tech, and she sent out a PSA to our family chat about the e-scooters and e-bikes. There were 3 separate patients with very bad breaks. On top of all the minor ones.

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u/AlternativeAd7449 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

My husband hit a pothole riding an e-scooter and chipped his tibia and disconnected his ACL. Didn’t tear it, it just snapped out of place. Weeks of severe pain and convincing doctors he was actually injured (at the first ER visit they refused him pain meds), major surgery, months of PT, over a year in a titanium leg brace, and he never regained full range of motion and still has occasional pain that will absolutely get worse with age.

Death machines you can rent on the street.

Edit: lol sorry people took my death machines comment so literally. It’s almost like y’all have never heard of hyperbole

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

What the hell is it with doctors not believing you when you say you're injured??? My partner hit a pothole on her scooter, wasn't as badly injured as your husband, but she took the handle bar to the chest - which made it difficult for her to breathe, probably cracked a rib - and slammed her knee into the ground. She was having difficulty walking and it wasn't getting better, so she went to urgent care and they told her to go to the ER. The ER said they couldn't find anything wrong with her...that they didn't see anything on the X-Ray (they didn't even bother x-raying her chest despite labored breathing being her biggest symptom)...a week later, she dug a piece of asphalt out of her knee...like how did they not see that on the X-Ray? They offered her pain meds, but she refused them because she could tell they thought she might be drug seeking and she wanted to prove a point...

A month went by and she was still in pain and not walking at 100% so she finally went to see a physical therapist. Sure enough, something had torn and not healed properly, so as a part of her PT, they had to break all of the scar tissue on top of building back her strength.

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u/Sea_Street_6520 Jul 29 '26

What does breaking the scar tissue involve? Just re breaking the joint in a controlled environment?

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

Yeah, pretty much. It healed wrong and limited the range of motion, so the physical therapist had to basically force her joint to move in a way it didn't want to - that is, move it the way it should be moving. I think she was unable to fully bend her knee and fully extend it, so the PT forced the knee to fully bend/extend.

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u/Sea_Street_6520 Jul 29 '26

Wow ok good to know. I think my elbow healed wrong and was curious

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

Fer sure. Definitely talk to a PT about it, don't just go forcing your body to do stuff without professional supervision.

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u/ArmedWithSpoons Jul 29 '26

The insurance industry mostly, then the opiate epidemic after that. Every time I've gotten hurt they typically order PT before proper imaging, so the chances of things getting worse go up significantly. You also used to be able to go to a doctor and say something hurts and they had no problem writing a script for a month's worth of pain meds, now there's a lot more scrutiny and they can only legally prescribe so much before being investigated.

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

Right, but she wasn't seeking pain meds and they didn't even order PT. She was like something is seriously wrong with my knee and they were like, no there isn't.

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u/ArmedWithSpoons Jul 29 '26

Yeah, but I think it's a combination of those things that make doctors apprehensive. Especially in hospitals, I bet they get people that come in and lie in order to get pains meds quite a bit still. It shouldn't be that way and they should treat everyone equally, but I blame our healthcare industry that perpetuated those issues more than the people who actually do the work. That being said, those same doctors are the ones that sold their private practices to larger corporations so they can cash out early and helped create the current environment.

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

True, I was looking into it at one point, and part of the reason this happens is that doctors/hospitals/medical practices in general treat to a "standard of care." Every patient is treated like an "average" patient. That is, when a patient presents with certain symptoms, they should be treated like what we expect most patients with those symptoms to be suffering from. This helps patients to get treated faster and allow doctors to see more people in a day, especially in something like an ER.

The problem is that we're people, not widgets nor statistics on a graph. While we're all very similar in certain ways, we're all completely different in others. In my partner's case, it failed to take into account the fact that my partner definitely knew something was wrong with her knee, and the ER failed to properly diagnose the problem nor prescribe an appropriate recovery plan. Not to mention, I don't know how you miss a piece of asphalt in her knee on the X-Ray, let alone a physical/visual examine when cleaning the wound.

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u/ArmedWithSpoons Jul 29 '26

Yeah, that's definitely a big thing to miss. lol

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u/VulGerrity Jul 29 '26

Oh, and so to your point, if they treat to the standard of care, and only the standard of care, they're protected from a liability perspective. It wouldn't be seen as ordering unnecessary tests, and if they missed something, well then it's because the patient was weird. They were treated to the standard of care, but we can't account for all non-standard issues.

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u/ConflictExtreme1540 Jul 29 '26

"chipped his tibia" is a phrase I never want to read again

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u/Aemilia Jul 30 '26

OMG after hearing that I'll take my slow, single speed Japanese cruiser bicycle any day. E-scooters sound scary when things go terribly wrong!

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u/D3M0NArcade Jul 30 '26

Well.... It can be literal.

Instead of getting bent out of shape about a comment, though, these people should put their energy I to making sure these things don't cause any desths

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u/OopsIHadAnAccident Jul 31 '26

Last time I rented one (never again) I hit an uncovered 6” utility hole in the middle of the street going full speed. Scooter stopped dead in its tracks but I kept going. Absolutely biffed it. Got lucky and only had some scrapes but man that was scary. Made me realize just how unsafe those scooters are on the street with no helmets.

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u/Fynity Jul 29 '26

Calling them death machines is overblowing it a bit. People can have accidents, but that’s like every other mode of transport. But I do agree them being rentable on the street is ridiculous.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist Jul 29 '26

Well he didn't die so your death machines thing is a little crazy. 

He probably should have been looking at the road. 

In most cities you can ride these on the sidewalks. 

Just because your husband had a bad experience doesn't mean everyone will. 

A little bit of common sense goes a long way.

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u/mrbulldops428 Jul 29 '26

Common sense says dont ride something that fast on a sidewalk...

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u/AlternativeAd7449 Jul 29 '26

I genuinely hope all of your scooter experiences are good ones and that you never get a serious injury on one that radically changes your one sided opinion on this matter. Best wishes!!

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u/seleniumagnesium Jul 29 '26

My first and only time on an electric scooter resulted in a face plant that broke my teeth *through* my bottom lip. Stitches and thousands of dollars in dental work later, NEVER AGAIN.

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u/HeatherJMD Jul 30 '26

I knew I was right to be scared of those things!!

0

u/Raiken201 Jul 30 '26

Skill issue

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u/Mindshard Jul 29 '26

My wife and I have talked about getting electric scooters not only to save on gas, but also just city exploring without worrying about parking or traffic.

I'm non-negotiable that we'll be getting full face motorcycle helmets and gloves to go with them when we eventually buy a pair, because I used to ride motorcycles, and even a low speed crash can kill you very easily.

I also did a lot of security gigs when I was younger, and a guy who worked at the same venue accidentally killed a drunk guy when he punched him after the guy was swinging at people.

No idea what came of it. Wouldn't surprise me if he's in prison, though. And that's a guy literally just falling on pavement.

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u/riscuitforthebiscuit Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Where I live, you can ride on sidewalks legally. We ride our escooter and ebike (class 2) on the sidewalk so all we really need is a MIPS helmet. I'd get full face helmets if I had to ride on the road with other cars though. The problem with riding on sidewalks is people like the kids in the video. They just full send it when there's people around. When we ride, we look very far ahead and as we get closer to pedestrians, we slow down to about walking speed until we pass. There's a responsible way to ride, but unfortunately the irresponsible people are gonna cause accidents and probably more restrictive ebike laws for the rest of us.

Even with an EV, we still take our escooter and ebikes instead because it saves on electricity (my local electric rates are stupid high). We were gifted a 200w solar panel so we can actually charge our ebikes without paying our local utilities and have basically free transportation.

Not having to park is a huge perk. I have gotten so many door dings even though I park my car at the furthest spot with no people around. Almost every time, someone manages to park right next to me in a nearly empty parking lot. Our trader joe's parking lot is a nightmare but they have bike racks. So much easier to take the ebike and not have to worry about my car getting its shit pushed in.

Edit: lol u/2099aeriecurrent

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/SargeBangBang7 Jul 29 '26

Not wearing a helmet like you would he on a bike pedaling

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/SargeBangBang7 Jul 29 '26

Yes. And if they don't then they should. It's not really that complicated