Help with 74 year old with a broken leg

[MaKaToM]

Hi,

Firstly thank you for your time and I will make this as short as possible for you.

10 weeks ago my friends 74 year old father who lost a leg to an alement over a year ago was run down in a hit and run while crossing the road in his electric wheelchair.

He broke his leg in 2 places, plus lost a sizeable chunk of flesh from the front of his lower leg.

He was admitted to 'Hospital 1', where he was kept for 3 weeks on morphine, before agreeing to have his leg removed due to the pain he was in.

Unfortunately Hospital 1 didn't have the equipment to perform the operation, so he was transferred to Hospital 2.

When he arrived they discovered he was alergic to morphine, so instead switched to codeine. He was then by a doctor that they would be able to pin his leg and perform a skin draft operation to patch up the missing flesh - which sounded like the best option, as he would prefer to have 1 leg rather than none.

Te doctor then went on holiday for a further 2 weeks, so Albert was left sat in a hospital bed without treatment for the break until the doctor returned.

Alberts leg was operated on, pinned and had a large cage put over his leg, as aposed to a cast to allow the doctors to continue the work on his wound.

2 weeks after this surgery, Albert was asked to put his weight on the leg to see how it feels. He was assisted by nurses to his feet, and then allowed to stand on his own.

This broke the leg for a second time, as the bones were not yet strong enough to hold his weight.

So, back into surgery to have it re-set.

2 weeks after this surgery, Albert has today been asked to stand and take his weight on the leg. I wasn't there to witness this, but apparantly blood began pouring from the pins and his leg has broken for a third time.

Continued...

[Abhijeet Ghosh]

Dear Thomas,
Well even i don't know why it was done.I think they might have done Illizarov or External Fixator for Albert.However even in these procedures, weight bearing is not allowed.We always start non weight bearing training in these cases for 3-5 months till x-rays shows good healing.
You really should question the same from the treating doctor.
Keep us informed about the new developments also.
Regards

[MaKaToM]

...Continued.

Now, onto my question.

Being that I am a fit, healthy 24 year old and Albert is a 74 year old arthritis suffering amputee - why is it that when I broke my leg, I was made to keep my leg in a cast for 8 weeks, then undergo 3 further weeks of phisio/rehabilitation to slowly re-introduce weight to it, but Albert is asked to put his full 14 stone load onto his broken leg just 2 weeks after surgery...not once but twice ?!

I personally don't believe that 2 weeks is enough for a 74 year old bone, riddled with arthritis to set strongly enough to take this weight but I am not a doctor and so I'm turning to you for advice.

Thank you very much for your time,

Kind regards,

Thomas