Our son Richard was being the gaffer and lighting man at Photo Training Overseas, as well as reporting, and learning, and meeting people. He flew down some steps today and broke his left leg, says he tripped over his own feet, and is recovering from a 3-hour operation involving a steel plate and several pins, in a hospital in Tunisia. He says the docs seem excellent, so they should be as most are French trained and that means top quality accident and emergency skills. He has not said whether a Leica M9 or anything else got involved in the fall. We are now waiting to learn when he will be able to get back, he was due on a flight on Sunday.

David

I wish him quick recovery.
I strongly recommend to prepare this at home: Khash

Here's hoping for a safe flight home and a speedy recovery.

Oh, that is terrible. I am glad to hear that he got good care and is mending and I hope he will make it back home soon.

I met Billy and Akaisha in Thailand in 2007 and we have been staying in touch via email since then. Billy got sick in Guatemala recently so they wrote of his hospitalization experience in this article. Although I have never stayed overnight in a hospital outside of the U.S. I have been to see doctors in Japan (several times), Canada (several times), and Thailand. All were excellent and, in general, I prefer the care I received than what I typically experience in the U.S.

http://retireearlylifestyle.com/billy_tests_medical_tour_guate.htm

Oh, I also saw a doctor in Kenya when I broke my foot in 1991, but he was a British doctor at a tiny clinic out in the boondocks far from any city. I think he was doing volunteer work for awhile.

Good luck to Richard and best wishes for a quick recovery!

I don't know if I can post a Facebook photo -





but he is clearly in good company!

David

Sorry to hear that David, it’s amazing how easy it is to become incapacitated; my Mother tripped on the garden hose a couple of weeks ago and landed on her shoulder on the pavers producing a cracked something or other near the rotator joint. Now she has to have the arm in a sling (immobilized) for three weeks before going back for more x-rays to check progress, in the middle of summer, not nice.
Where was the break in Richard’s case, above or below the knee?
Greg
Ps Doc, the only thing I liked about that recipe was the vodka you drink with it.

More or less a broken ankle without the ankle being affected Greg - he broke the tiba and fibia above the ankle, apparently a clean break in the tibia. Apparently it did not hurt him so much as surprise him - he heard the snap and then found he had a wobbly foot. He's now stuck in Tunisia for another week, we think, before it will be safe to fly back. He is not in a plaster cast, he has been able to photograph his foot and the scar. The nine steel pins jointing the bones will have to be removed in a few weeks' time back home, but he is going to be very unhappy as he was just getting into working for the motoring/auto-enthusiast press (he has owned over 130 cars in his 20 years of driving) and he'll have to cancel his first trial shoot. Also, he has three cars in different states of project repair including one loaned to him by a motoring mag journalist. He will not be able to drive for two or three months, even if he could do it physically, it invalidates his insurance to drive until fully recovered.

Fortunately PTO (an annual training symposium for about 50 photographers) offers an extra week's holiday option for those who can afford to stay on after the event is finished. One of his friends there is staying on and has taken charge of all his gear, which includes a complete Sigma SD-1 outfit as well as a Leica M9 kit all of his own, and a large lighting system of Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit with California Sunbounce reflectors. He's getting his MacBook and the hospital has wireless internet, everyone in the remaining group knows what's happened, they will be dropping in to visit and helping him get the excess baggage (60 kilos of additional photo gear for hold checkin) back on the later return flight, or maybe even on to the original Sunday flight. One of the guys there wanted to borrow the lighting kit for the extra week (I think a couple of the models remain behind and the photographers can hire them for further shoots).

David

I'm glad to hear that he is doing ok DK... Being injured in a foreign country is a bit of a fear of mine... Not so much that I don't do it, but it is in a little corner of the back of my mind....

A broken ankle...as difficult to experience as any broken bone in our fragile bone structure.

Wishing Richard a speedy recovery, David. You must have felt very restless for not having any control on the matter, for the distance.
Richard shares a fate with many who broke their ankles here during the icy weather conditions of the past week, except for his tripping over his own foot, that is.

This winter is the only one when I hear of so many breaking their bones that are closer to the ground they walk on, statistic-wise.

Years ago, I sprained an ankle after a roller skating afternoon and I know how painful it was in the first instances of the injury. Richard, probably endured more at first but he seems well in the circle of cheerful company afterwards. They appear very vibrant. : )


Yildiz

Shame to hear that must have been a pretty severe break to require 3-hour operation hope he recovers fine.
I've never had a broken bone anywhere I'm sure my luck will run out some time