should you call an ambulance for this?-back pain

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EightBelles134

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I am a horseback rider. I suffered a riding accident in May in which I was thrown from a horse and came down HARD on my back.I initally got the wind knocked out of me. And after I had recovered from that, I immediately felt a sharp,burning,stabbing pain in my lower left back.When I tried to move my legs,there was about ten minutes where I couldn't move my legs at all because trying to move my legs would send a sharp,burning pain down my back into my legs.I'm also sure I blacked out for like ten minutes because I came around to the barn manager telling me "open your eyes,open your eyes".Now the barn manager was in the ring at the time,but the instructor was not.When the instructor did get to me the first thing she told me was "I'm not calling an ambulance,you need to suck it up and get right back on the horse."And i did.By the time I got off the horse at the end of my lesson,my back hurt so much I could hardly walk straight.I never even ended up going to a hospital either,because my parents believed my instructor when she said it was just a sore muscle.Even though i ended up swelling up the next day. But I was just wondering,what would the more appropriate action have been in that situation?Would you have called an ambulance?or would you have just brushed it off as nothing big?
 
Well I'm a little biased in this subject. I've seen, multiple times on a personal level, some very severe injuries from horse riding. I think you absolutely should have been at the bare minimum evaluated by ems. Especially with the loss of consciousness and the severe pain to your leg. Falls like that carry a great potential for spinal injuries. Hopefully you were wearing a helmet at the time. Do you have any lasting problems from it?
 
You blacked out for 10 minutes. You need to be evaluated by a medical professional. Without witnessing the incident or being able to do even a basic exam, I cannot say whether an ambulance should have been called or not, nor whether you went to the ER or your primary physician, and how quickly. The fact that you were out for 10 minutes, though, would lead me more towards a conservative approach and prompt evaulation by an emergency physician.
 
An ambulance should have been called going by what you said

1) You blacked out which means the fall was hard not for just seconds but likely for minutes
2) You were in really bad pain to the point that if you moved the pain was unbreakable
3)The pain location was in your back which means there could been damage to your spine.

While i am not emt but just an owner of ems, the first point would been enough for me to say an ambulance call should been mandatory.
 
I also probably would have informed the instructor exactly where to shove it if he had persisted in denying you medical care.
 
Yeah call us next time.

Depending on where you live you could have been a trauma 1
 
Yes, it will give the flying doctors and paramedics from the helicopter emergency medical service something to do.

Come on Oz, its a go.

Ambulance, medivac airborne
 
Were you wearing a vest? Were you jumping? what level jumps? How big is the horse? Are we talking a fall from a 15 hand house while at the canter or a 18 hand horse doing level 4 or 5 oxer?

You should have gone to the hospital either way, and depending on the answers to my questions and where you live you could have gotten a flight to a trauma 1 hospital. My sister rides and I have seem many falls and crashes into jumps, I always recommend they go because of the speed many falls occurat
 
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"I'm not calling an ambulance,you need to suck it up and get right back on the horse."

That's just flat out awful. Now, I believe in "getting back on the horse" just as much as the next guy, but with possibly some bad trauma, I would not risk it.
 
Look at the bright side, if you have a lasting injury with disability, you will a great lawsuit.

Infact go to the doctor and get a neck brace, then call an attorney.
 
Veneficus said:
Look at the bright side, if you have a lasting injury with disability, you will a great lawsuit.

Infact go to the doctor and get a neck brace, then call an attorney.
Click to expand...

Do you have a cough? You could have been exposed to asbestos and are obligated to receive trillions of dollars with help from:

i-barry.jpg

This goofy man.
 
Pittma said:
Do you have a cough? You could have been exposed to asbestos and are obligated to receive trillions of dollars with help from:

i-barry.jpg

This goofy man.
Click to expand...

I think there is a slight difference between the Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe personal injury attorney and a blatent disregard for the health and welfare of the injured with a "man up" attitude displayed by people who have little knowledge about the consequences of such injuries.

If laypeople tell people they don't need help, they had better be right or they should pay for the life long consequences.
 
I guess the fact that it happened in May with no long-term consequences or injuries, means that the guy/boss was right :P:P:PB)-_-
 
It sounds like the instructor got lucky (assuming that its gotten better). Blacking out is by definition a neurological symptom which means something happened to the brain. Your instructor (nor EMS in most cases) would be able to tell whether it was a mild concussion or a significant traumatic brain injury. Same is true of the back injury. Unless your instructor keeps an x-ray machine in his first aid kit, along with his maximum strength suck-it-up-adrine, it would be impossible to rule out a spinal injury with the symptoms you describe.
 
EightBelles134 said:
I am a horseback rider. I suffered a riding accident in May in which I was thrown from a horse and came down HARD on my back.I initally got the wind knocked out of me. And after I had recovered from that, I immediately felt a sharp,burning,stabbing pain in my lower left back.When I tried to move my legs,there was about ten minutes where I couldn't move my legs at all because trying to move my legs would send a sharp,burning pain down my back into my legs.I'm also sure I blacked out for like ten minutes because I came around to the barn manager telling me "open your eyes,open your eyes".Now the barn manager was in the ring at the time,but the instructor was not.When the instructor did get to me the first thing she told me was "I'm not calling an ambulance,you need to suck it up and get right back on the horse."And i did.By the time I got off the horse at the end of my lesson,my back hurt so much I could hardly walk straight.I never even ended up going to a hospital either,because my parents believed my instructor when she said it was just a sore muscle.Even though i ended up swelling up the next day. But I was just wondering,what would the more appropriate action have been in that situation?Would you have called an ambulance?or would you have just brushed it off as nothing big?
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Had I been there at the time, you would have been evaluated to the fullest capability that I can legally do. While I can't say that you would have been taken by ambulance to the ED or told to suck it up, I can say that my evaluation would have resulted in a plan...

Neuro injuries are harder to determine without imaging tools... Prolonged unconsciousness is not something I'd just brush off... but some of what you describe makes me wonder...
 
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