Puncture Wound Accident

WARNING: Not for the faint-hearted.

Almost 2 weeks ago, I had the misfortune of impaling my right foot with a steel rod that was jutting out from the side of the street. The injury for me was quite serious.

I've not had a bleeding injury this bad. I believe a scrape on the forearm I sustained while swimming was the only one I can remember where some bleeding is involved.


Vacation in Pampanga

The accident happened in Pampanga where I stayed to look after my mom. I originally planned for a one week vacation there.

As has been my routine at home, I went for walks in the morning. While outside, I noticed that some of the plants at the perimeter concrete fence were drying up.

It's probably the lack of watering or the hot weather or a combination of both that made the leaves brown. Some of the plants had entire stems all dried up that it only took a slight tug to pull these stems out.


Anyway, I somehow had this resolve make these plants green again. That meant watering the plants almost everyday and removing all the dried parts.


My Foot Injury

I was fairly successful in watering and cutting the dried leaves on the first day. On the second day, I wanted to reach the other plants but the water hose wasn't long enough. And so I passed the water hose through the perimeter fence instead of the front gate.

I knew there were steel rods jutting out vertically from the newly concreted road. Most were 6 inches or more tall. I thought there was only one rod per concrete bracing.




One thing I didn't notice was there was one bracing that had TWO rods. And the other rod was only around 2 inches long. And I didn't notice THAT rod.

Here are the two rods (they were bent and hammered after the accident to prevent any more). See how thick those rods are.


Long story short, I accidentally stepped on the shorter rod. It went through my sandal and into the sole of my right foot.

The right foot was bleeding profusely when I managed to get into the house. I washed the foot before going to the ER. Here's how the bottom of my foot looked like after getting back from the hospital.


Here's the bottom of the sandal I was wearing showing the hole where the steel rod went through.


It took a good two weeks before the wound finally closed and dried. It took another week for all the bruising to go away. For now I'm still treating the puncture wound.



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