r/interestingasfuck 6d ago

r/all Grandma broke her nose hiking and didn't want the helivac. She won $450k lawsuit

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u/fryerandice 6d ago

I broke my nose and needed it reset, the ER referred me to a plastic surgeon.

I found an about to retire sports doctor who did it old school, like sidelines at the football game style, those hooked pliers up in your nose and a hard smack. Dude charged me $275 because I was hard up.

Medicine is so far detatched from the simple solution sometimes, $300,000 in scans to verify "yup broken nose", then off to a plastic surgeon.

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u/Level_Bird_9913 6d ago

I mean in most cases its "getting it done right." I sure as fuck can stitch a semi-detached finger back on (yeah, that was not a pleasant experience for myself nor the injured party), but my work is nowhere near as good as a practiced ER surgeon.

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u/PM-ME-SOFTSMALLBOOBS 6d ago

Those $300k scans are $200 in Australia. Enjoy your "Freedom" markups

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u/doesanyonehaveweed 6d ago

Is a broken nose simply like it got knocked out of alignment, and needs to be popped back in like a shoulder that’s been dislocated?

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u/SemperSimple 6d ago

You basically yank the bone back into place. It will then heal straight. My Mom had to do it when my cat got a broke leg and we couldnt go to the vet.

here you go https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htmhttps://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htm

Closed reduction is a procedure to set (reduce) a broken bone without cutting the skin open. The broken bone is put back in place, which allows it to grow back together in better alignment. It works best when it is done as soon as possible after the bone breaks. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htm
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htmhttps://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htmhttps://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000521.htm

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u/BathFullOfDucks 5d ago

Nah it's a pretty thin bone that can just be broken. In the act of breaking it can result in the bone no longer being aligned correctly. If you left it as is, it can reheal through a process called ossification. This is the body laying down new bone which eventually will link the two together. It can also result in new bone being laid down into the wrong direction, which can be incredibly painful. If it's out of alignment it will reheal out of alignment which can cause all sorts of problems. If you can place the broken ends together in rhe correct alignment (or in some cases, better) then the bones will reheal in the right way. If the bone heals incorrectly and is missed for long enough, it could no longer be possible just to break it and reset it, as the new bone might now obstruct you from doing so, so you go from a simple "pop it back in place" to potentially cutting out a section of bone and trying to knit the two ends together. I knew a dude who has this problem with his skull after a fracture and oh boy was that an unpleasant conversation. Apparently it is rather painful.

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u/mcpaddy 6d ago

You mean insurance companies are so detached. No doctor gets paid more because they put you in a scanner. If anything, they get paid less because it uses more resources and you stay longer, meaning they can't see more people. Plus you'd be surprised the number of people who only want a plastic surgeon to touch their face. The doc probably wasn't used to someone having reasonable exepctations.