Stephen King
again, the formidable David Brown, said that the region below my right knee had been reduced to “so many marbles in a sock.” The extent of those lower-leg injuries necessitated two deep incisions—they’re called medial and lateral fasciotomies—to release the pressure caused by the exploded tibia and also to allow blood to flow back into the lower leg. Without the fasciatomies (or if the fasciotomies had been delayed), it probably would have been necessary to amputate the leg. My right knee itself was split almost directly down the middle; the technical term for the injury is “comminuted intra-articular tibial fracture.” I also suffered an acetabular fracture of the right hip—a serious derailment, in other words— and an open femoral intertrochanteric fracture in the same area. My spine was chipped in eight places. Four ribs were broken. My right collarbone held, but the flesh above it was stripped raw. The laceration in my scalp took twenty or thirty stitches. Yeah, on the whole I’d say Bryan Smith was a tad conservative.
–4– Mr. Smith’s driving behavior in this case was eventually examined by a grand jury, who indicted him on two counts: driving to endanger (pretty serious) and aggravated assault ( very serious, the kind of thing that means jail time). After due consideration, the District Attorney responsible for prosecuting such cases in my 282