Nastiest Injury you've witnessed....

[sj]

This one is football but nothing I've seen has ever topped it. Not even Joe Theisman's leg looked as bad as this, In practice an Iowa State running back in about 1975 or so was running down field and slightly left and then cut back off his left foot and turned back towards the right. When he planted his right foot it happened to be against the grain of the astro-turf and got caught up and it got stuck in the turf. His momentum then took his upper body over the top of his stuck foot and his upper body then sort of rolled over the top of his own leg. His knee then hyper extended a complete 90 degrees the opposite direction that it should be before the foot became unstuck. In other words if he had been sitting normally in a chair his foot and toes would be staring back at him in the face. The doctors thought for awhile to just go ahead and amputate but they didn't.

The trainer had the film and also made four still pictures from the negatives which is how you can see the full 90 degrees. It was brutal.

[AFHusker]

The worst I've witnessed was a girl dislocating her kneecap.

[RushmoreRef]

I was in college and we had a 7 footer on our team who wasn't very coordinated.

He went up for a dunk, dunked the ball but got his front two teeth tangled in the net (You couldn't make this one up). You can imagine what happened on the way down.....Crack....two teeth go flying and blood all over.

Recovered the teeth but were broken at the root so they had to be removed and new, artificial teeth put back in......

[JM_00]

This happened when I was still in high school, probably during a JV game.

A kid from the other team went running after a loose ball out of bounds. He slapped the ball back into play and his momentum carried him toward one of the exit doors. He put his hands out to protect himself, but his right arm went straight throught the little plate glass window in the door. The remaining upper half of the sheet of glass slid down and cut through his bicep right down to the bone. I was a clean cut of all the muscle and ligament tissue. He pulled his arm out and blood was squirting everywhere. Combine that with everyone in the gym freaking out, it was a pretty intense experience. We stopped the game for almost an hour while we waited for clean-up and medical services. The kid didn't play again for roughly 2 years while he rehabed.

[jmkbball]

At times this year, I felt like offering a pregame instruction that anyone who breathes on another player would be called for a foul.

First week of January, a BJV player saves a ball at the scorers table and glances off it. He falls to the floor as the opposing team steals the save and goes the other way. He can't get up so as T, I stand with him and notice that he has what looks to be a deep cut below his knee -- but no blood. The other team shoots, misses and the ball starts coming our way. I blow my whistle and now looking more closely, realize it's a compound fracture. The trainer rushes him to ER.

Ten days later, a loose ball has two BV players diving...one comes up screaming and we find out later, he's broken his elbow.

First week of February, the leading scorer in the area goes up to block a shot and comes down on a much smaller kid under the basket. There's just a few minutes left in a third quarter blowout.

He screams, falls toward me out of bounds under the basket. I grab him to keep him from falling face first into me but his right leg is broken in two places. 65 minutes for EMS.

As I said, I'm rethinking my pregame.

[M&M Guy]

Thanks, guys. I've now officially lost my appetite for lunch.

The worst I've seen (and heard) is an achilles tear as well. Player was driving the lane, stepped on another foot, and we heard the "pop". The worst part was when his teammates picked him to take him off the floor, his foot just sort of dangled there. I don't believe I had dinner after that game either...

[Mark Padgett]

Kind of makes the girl who asked me for an "injury timeout" because she broke a nail seem rather silly when you put it in perspective.

[Mountaineer]

I've seen several - one kid that was playing for me when I coached was knocked to the ground face first - there was a kid that fell over top of him (other team). On tape you can see the kid look at my player under him and WHAM! he just dropped his whole (large) body on his head and completely smashed his front teeth. There was a fine white powder around his lips from what was his teeth!

In high school a teammate in practice went up for a layup and was fouled and came down on his ankle. His foot ended up at a 90 degree angle with a "ball" where his foot was. It was completely gross.

Of course I didn't see this one - but it was pretty devistating this past April when I completely ruptured my achilles tendon umpiring a college softball game! It rolled up in my calf and of course the foot just laying there doing nothing. (Refraining from an exwife story here!)

[ATXCoach]

I was coaching, and one of my players went to block out the defender, the defender side stepped her and gave her a little tug, and my player went rolling into her teammate. The teammates knee hyperextended well beyond the "oh that's a hyperextended knee" reaction to the "oh my gawd, it's not supposed to bend like that" reaction. Amazingly, no tears, just sprained.

I've witnessed two players go head first into a brick wall - mine walked away and did not play the rest of the weekend, the other was carted off in an ambulance (later found out she was ok). The noise that makes is just scarry.

Also walked into a gym, where everyone was just standing around. Puzzled, I look around and saw a girl laying on the court with her hip dislocated.

[Terrapins Fan]

I saw a college player go up to block a shot and hit his head on the backboard. It knocked him out and he fell to the floor limp. It was scary for the fans. But he was O.K. didn't play the rest of the game.

Also at a game I was refereeing, the cheerleaders were in the cornor practicing and I looked at them and thought, " That is just an accident waiting to happen" I turned away when they tossed the girl into the air....they didn't catch her...It was terrible, but again she was o.k.

[ChrisSportsFan]

Reading thru the other posts kept reminding me of several injuries I've witnessed. Deciding which is worst would be tough but I know my injury was the most painful to me.

1. The time the cheerleader flyer (the one they throw) did not get caught and I saw her head bounce off the floor during a timeout.

2. The time I was in the lead and had a 1 on 1 post matchup. A1 ducked left as B! brought his hand up to bat the ball away. He stuck his thumb in the corner of A1's eye socket up to the first knuckle. That one made my eyes hurt and still does.

3. Early November 2005, I was coaching my son's team and we were running a play. Someone's little brother was on the sideline and let a ball roll out onto the court. I jumped over it, lost my balance and went into the brick wall which was pretty close to the baseline. I stuck my hands up to catch myself and ended up breaking the radial head in both elbows. I'm still dealing with that one although it only caused me to miss 1 assignment in the 2 years.

[Damian]

GF game a few years ago. Coach informs me that one girl had a medical problem and sometimes passes out. I was like "you're kidding, right?". He said no, this is the last year she can play and sometimes her heart stops and she just passes out. If it happens, just stop play, and she will come around in a few minutes.

Sure enough, about half way through the 3rd qtr, she just drops like she's dead. We stop play, the trainers come around and do their thing, and about 5 minutes later she's back up. Scariest thing I ever saw on the court.

She didn't come back in, of course.

[buckrog64]

Girls Jr. High basketball, believe it or not. B girl goes after A dribbler and she smacks heads with A. B girl cuts her head open, blood on the floor, other little darlins are freaking out because of the blood. So she was taken to the hospital and got both stitches and the personal foul.

[Corndog89]

In 1973 I saw a kid pitching in a HS baseball game throw a breaking ball and his forearm just snapped, his right arm dangling for a couple seconds that seemed to last just about forever. I still get little sick thinking about it 34 years later.

I didn't see this next one but it made the local news...a year or two earlier in another HS baseball game as a kid slid into 3rd the 3rd baseman applied the tag inadvertantly (I hope) into the slider's the throat, crushing his larynx. A former Army medic in Vietnam was at the game and he rushed out and did a tracheotomy on the kid right there at 3rd base saving the kid's life. Memory tells me the medic was the slider's father but I'm not sure about that.

[tmp44]

I was doing an IM game about 2 or 3 years ago, guy gets trapped in the corner and he slips and his legs go out from underneath him. His kneecap ended up almost on the backside of his leg. I saw him a week later...he tore everything in his knee....ACL, MCL, PCL, and patella tendon.