Kadiera's Playground Cute but Evil - it averages out

this afternoon, both my mother and my brother have called to tell me that my uncle is in the hospital.

He has 8 broken ribs, some with multiple fractures, due to a fall. He's not that old either - younger than my mom, so I'd guess he's in his late 40's.

At any rate, apparently breaking a rib bruises your lungs. The more you break, the more bruising, and thus the more swelling. The more swelling, the harder it is to breathe.

Needless to say, at 8 ribs with multiple fractures, the risk of complications is quite large. My uncle was taken to the hospital this weekend due to difficulties breathing; they ended up putting him on a ventilator and jacking the O2 sat up pretty far.

He's got a blood clot from the whole mess too. Can't give him blood thinners for that, because it makes the bruising worse.

So, if his breathing doesn't improve in the next couple of days (ie, the bruising keeps getting worse), and/or if the blood clot moves to places it shouldn't in the meanwhile, it's likely that this little accident will turn out to be fatal.

This is not my favorite uncle - it's the one that set up the whole trip to Disney last year. But it still sucks.