The Worst Pain I have ever Experienced

By Derek Chapman

Why would you want to tell someone about your worst pain? It is hard to explain your pain to someone else, how you feel and how much does it hurt. First of all I think a doctor or your family members are the only people that really care. This is my experience with the worst pain I ever felt. I hope that, when reading this you don't feel the pain.

On April 10, 1998 I was on my way home after a hard days work at the mine. I stopped at the mill, to fuel up my truck. When I arrived at the mill I looked for the security guard to give me fuel. After about 20 minutes the security guard finally showed up. In a hurry I, in a friendly manner grabbed the guard by the arm and was leading him across the shop floor towards the pumps. On the shop floor there was a cement ditch used to catch any oil from the diesel equipment. This ditch was covered with a steel grating accept for one 2' X 2' hole that was used for a pump. It was covered with an oil soaked piece of plywood. While crossing the floor I stepped on this wood, which because of its weakness from the oil, broke. My foot and leg dropped down about a foot, and because I had the guard by the arm, he came down on top of me, adding to the weight. I didn't know at the moment exactly what happened to my ankle and leg. I learned later that my ankle twisted all the way around, and in doing so it broke my leg along with my ankle.

The pain was unbelievable! I lay there rolling around on the ground holding the top part of my leg because it hurt too much to hold on to my ankle. The guard was leaning over me asking me if I was ok. Being trained in first aid, he was squeezing my leg in different spots and asking me if it hurt here or there. This was ok until he touched the damaged area. "Get your frigging hands off me" I yelled, "and don't touch me again". At this time the pain was so great that I was sick, or very close to being in shock. The next person to arrive on the accident site was one of the mechanics. He tried the same thing as the security guard and got the same reaction. I then made it clear to all that no one was to touch me. "Go get me a blanket you fools. Can't you see I am in shock". I now became my own first aider, giving orders to these poor guys that listened to all I had to say. Don't get me wrong they were all doing what they were taught to do, and paid to do, but the pain was so great that I didn't want to go through any added hurt. After being covered and laying there for over an hour, letting these guys look down at me feeling absolutely useless, I finally let someone look for some appropriate transportation to get me to the hospital. Because of my poor conduct with all involved they only did what I asked each and every time a move was made. The blanket, the first aid, the transportation, the concerned help and every bump in the rough road on the way to the hospital, I know were already concerns.

Several months later when I returned to work, I got everyone involved into one room and let them verbally ream me out. Which, I might add, they did. Usually in a tough situation like this one, I can keep my cool and do what I have been trained to do. But when it involves me I turn into an instant prick. Not only did I hurt myself, I hurt everyone who tried to help. So this incident did result in not only my physical pain, but it brought pain to many others.

Can you imagine if you were to put all the pain of a suffered fatality, the death of a friend or family member or a critical injury such as mine together, how much it would hurt? I am sure that it would result in instant death due to shock for the injured.

© Copyright 2006 Derek Chapman