I have been discharged with my investigation notes and am trying to work out what they say. Google has helped (I think) but if someone could confirm, that would be great. The explanation I got from the hospital was along the lines of “You broke it and we fixed it up as best we could. Come back in a while and we will see what has happened*” The main bits I want to confirm I understand are points A to F. Most seem to make sense but point F puzzles me and googling fragment doesn’t help.

A) The talus have been cleaved vertically = The bone in the ankle that the leg sits on has broken vertically

B) the posterior fragment of the talus, including the talar dome subluxing posteriorly = The big bit at the back of the broken bone got squeezed backwards?

C) around the cleavage plane there is severe comminution with small fragments – The bone got smasshed into lots of little bits where it broke

D) the tibia is almost sitting on the calcaneum – the leg has squish the broken bit so far out the way it is resting on the heel

E) The navicular is intact = better give the poor sucker some good news to end with

F) ‘There is a possible fragment of lateral superior aspect of the calcaneum’ = should this read fracture, not fragment? Later they mention a small fragment from the medial side of the cuboid. It seems strange to have the same typo twice in one paragraph.

*Possibly not their exact words but I was pretty vacant when they were talking.

Seems like you’ve got it tbh. Fragment implies a floating piece of bone, I don’t think they’ve made a typo. If any doubt you should have the secretary’s number and call ask them to get someone to talk you through it.

EDIT: You can get an avulsion fracture (bit pulled off) of the calcaneum which would leave a fragment floating about. Does that make sense/make it any clearer?

Out of interest did you injure it by landing on the foot from a height?

Seems correct to me – in that you’ve taken a small chunk off both the cuboid and calcaneum?

Fragment means just that a fragment, a fracture means a break in the continuity of the bone structure. So yes a fragment is a fracture but it’s being more specific.

Thanks. fragment now makes sense.

fontmoss – yes, fell from a height saving small children from a wild eagle attack!

yes, fell from a height saving small children from a wild eagle attack!

Ouch! Good karma though 😉

I’d translate that report to “the foot is badly fecked up and probably will be for quite some time”.
Good luck though. That sounds really horrible.