40-40 over 100 stitches
when i was about 11 i was playing '40-40' with my younger sister and a girl from down the road in our back garden.

the 'home base' was the plate glass back door [you can see where this is going].

'dhingy lips' from down the road put her arm through the glass getting superficial cuts and i was sent to get help. as i went to open the door please from her and my sister were 'the glass will fall out if you open it, climb through the hole' so i climbed through the hole and tripped.

ripped a huge chunk of my left outer calf out of my leg. another cut a bit further up left another huge gaping hole with a chunk of leg flapping freely and also cut my hand [which bled the most as its wasnt such a deep cut.

my mum was a kip on the sofa and came out to the hallway to see what the screams were all about, she called for my dad who was sleeping off a sunday afternoon bevvy and almost fell down the stairs trying to dress himself in a rush.

mum said you could see the bones in 3 places. no one thought to retrieve the lost chunk that was in the doorway and i was bloody lucky not to have lost my leg let alone bled to death if it had been my thigh. thankfully the top surgeon in the area was at the hospital that day and managed to stretch the remaining skin and stitch it.

i tell everyone, including my kids, that its a shark bite!
(J R Hartley, Thu 12 Feb 2009, 21:56, Reply)