Olympic Hurdles Champion Suffers ‘Bone Explosion’ After Fall, Hand Ends Up Facing Wrong Direction

 

You don’t normally think of hurdles as a dangerous sport but you may want to reconsider after you see what happened to Sally Pearson.

“”

The reigning gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles suffered a nasty fall during a race on June 4 and the trauma was severe enough to cause a “bone explosion.” With her lower arm blue and numb and her hand facing the goddamn wrong way, she feared amputation.

Luckily her fears were assuaged by a successful surgery. It will be a spell until she’s out jumping around again, but this has to be considered a happy ending.

Just looking at this photo makes me squeamish.

To her credit, Pearson is looking at the silver lining (which has to be better than an appendage hanging all akimbo).

“I’ve never broken a bone, I’ve never had stitches or surgery before,” she said. “Doing all of that in one, in a different country, was very traumatic.

“But I do put things into perspective and think I am very lucky with what happened. If it had been the ankle, it would be a completely different story.”

[H/T: BBC]