Teen's Devastating Injuries After 30-Feet Cliff Plunge | Paramedics

Paramedics are bringing in a 17-year-old boy with gruesome injuries. Is this Santi or Santiago? Hello, my name's Ben. I'm the nurse in charge tonight. The American schoolboy stumbled and plunged 10 metres down a cliff. Ready, set, go. Man, that was so painful. Yeah, I'm sorry, mate. Obvious injuries is he's got a compound lower third humerus there on the right side that has just started hemorrhaging about the last five minutes and he's got multiple abrasions. Trauma doctor Lauren Cohen has only been in emergency for a few months. Can you wiggle your toes for me? Good. Feel me touching you there? Yeah. And there. And there. It's always very busy, always hectic. All the different staff have to work together to get the patients seen and assessed and treated really quickly. So it's pretty chaotic, but emergency department has a great spirit. How is your health normally? Do you have any medical problems? No. When someone has a really obvious injury, it's easy to get caught up in that injury and forget that there could be other injuries we don't know about. So our immediate concerns are about protecting the spine, making sure the patient's able to breathe and getting enough oxygen, and that they're not bleeding massively. So those are the immediate things that we worry about. Santiago has snapped the bone in his upper arm in half and under the bandages it's poking through the skin. Did you take any regular medications? No. Beautiful. And when did you last eat or drink? I had a Big Mac for lunch about 10 o'clock. Oh, that'll keep you going for a while. Santiago is alert and oriented and talking to us and I'm really relieved to see that because it immediately tells me that his brain's working, his heart's working, and we can actually see some of his personality straight away. All right, they're just having a look with the ultrasound at your belly and while they do that I'm just going to do a bit more of a thorough look over. Just going to have to look you in your eyes. I got much more involved in Santiago's case than I normally would as a floor coordinator. Simply because he's 17. Broken bones don't necessarily sound bad but a badly broken bone to a dominant hand can have a huge impact on someone's life. It's been a horrible day for Santiago who only moved to Australia from the US six months ago. We're going to give you some pain relief. We'll give you a little bit of a head spin. Santiago's schoolmate Jack was with him when he fell and can't believe what's happened. I've tried to stay calm, to keep him calm. I told him to focus on his breathing, just try and distract him from his arm. We see each other every day. So yeah, we've gotten it on pretty well. We're going to do that roll on the side now. Is everyone ready? On three. One, two, three. Okay. Yes or no? Do you have pain, Santi? No. Pain where Lauren's touching? No. We haven't found any obvious injuries in Santiago apart from the fracture in his arm and we haven't found any evidence of any head or spinal injury. Do you have any pain where Lauren's touching? No. Our major worry is this pretty nasty open fracture that he's got which means that the bone's sticking out of the arm and the arm and the tissue could be quite contaminated. Bleeding quite a lot there. I'm going to stop that first. What's bleeding? Your arm. It is, the right one? Yeah, quite a lot of blood there. Over in recess, Dr Lauren Cohen is still treating 17-year-old Santiago after he plunged 10 metres down a cliff. One, two, three. Good man, well done. It does worry us that there's so much blood coming out of this fracture. Open fractures can bleed a huge amount and so we need to get on top of treating that. Santiago has broken his arm in the mid-shaft of his humerus which is the bone in the upper part of the arm. There's some really important nerves that wrap around the humerus in the arm. In particular, one of the nerves is the radial nerve that controls a lot of the movements in the hand and that can very easily be damaged in this sort of injury. Right-handed Santiago is in his last year of high school and any nerve damage could ruin his chances of graduating. Can you give me a thumbs up? Beautiful. Can you spread your fingers out like a star? Good, well done. Point that finger up for me. Keep it there. How about there? An open fracture means that the bone is sticking out of the arm and because it's being contaminated there's a really high risk of infection if we don't get on to it quickly and get it washed out and put back into a position where the tissues are protected. So we're just going to give you some of that medication now which will just make you a little bit sleepy. Nice low breast bulging. While the team wait for the sedation to kick in Santiago's mate Jack, who was with him when the accident happened waits anxiously outside. He fell probably about 10 metres and landed at the bottom, yelling up, I've broken my arm. So I was concerned about that as well. I was like, this could be very bad. Oh, still good. Doing really well. Yeah, great one. Pretty nasty compound. It's a very contaminated wound. He's fallen down a cliff and the arm tissues are all open to the environment. If we don't get on top of the potential for infection in this arm he could end up with really serious infection in the bone. Did you have all your surgery done at school? Or do you know when you would have had a tetanus shot? Um, I have no clue actually. Giving it a bit of a clean. You're doing really well. The team need to push the bone back inside the skin and then put the arm in a cast to keep it straight and protected. Does mum know you're here? In the hospital? Yeah. No, I'm living with my aunt and my uncle. Do they know you're here? No. The teenager's parents are on the other side of the world and don't know about their son's horrific accident. Is Jack still there? Who's Jack? Is that your mate? He's in the waiting room and we'll get him in once he's had his CT. There's a chance that Santiago has damaged his radial nerve with this injury and that could mean that he could permanently lose some of the movements in his hand. For a 17-year-old, that could be quite a life-changing injury. One, two, three. Oh boy, oh boy. 17-year-old high school student Santiago fell 10 metres down a cliff. Oh, it feels so bad. He's about to have a CT scan to find out how badly broken his right arm is and whether the break has injured nerves or blood vessels. Oh, his arm looks like this. It's all smashed at me. After the scan, best mate Jack is finally allowed in to see his friend. Heyo. This is your best chap. Do you mind, like, scratching my eyelids? Which one? Both of them? Thank you. The nurse was saying that she was impressed by you. By what way? By your arm. Oh, really? Yeah. Sick. Santiago hasn't told his parents in the US about his accident. They're about to get a frightening phone call. Hi, Mum. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I just have something to tell you, and it's really important, and I really need you to not freak out, OK? I fell about 10 metres down this really rocky hill, and I broke my arm really, really, really badly. They're taking really good care of me. My friend Jack is with me. So, Mum, she wants to talk to you. Hi, Karina. My name's Ben. I'm the nurse in charge at Royal Melbourne ED. It's a pretty confronting thing that's happened. I can't imagine a more disruptive phone call at three o'clock in the morning across the other side of the world. So I really did want to give her some reassurance and make sure that his mum understood that we would be able to look after him. You did, man. The CT scan results are back and show Santiago urgently needs major surgery to repair his badly broken arm. We're going to find the fracture, find the bone, get some clamps, put it together, and then we're going to use some plates and some screws to hold it all together. So, recovery time? Recovery time is a while. You won't really be lifting anything for up to three months. OK? It's going to take a while. Oh, I'm worried about my arm. Yeah, we're looking after your arm. It's been two days since schoolboy Santiago was rushed to hospital after plunging 10 metres down a cliff, snapping a bone in his upper arm. Pretty nasty compound. The brave 17-year-old had an operation to realign the broken bone which had pierced through his skin. I had a surgery the next morning to put some metal plates on this part and this part of my arm, and then they put screws going along. So now we're just waiting for them to heal properly. Santiago's on strong pain relief, but today he's ready to go home. I have plans to hang out with some friends today. When I get back. And I'm going to school tomorrow. Right-handed Santiago still has a long recovery ahead and the impact on his life will be dramatic. I'm going to have to learn to use my left for everything and I also work at a pizza shop, which I think that's a done deal because I'm not going to be able to lift pizzas out of the oven any time soon. The Year 12 student hasn't lost his adventurous spirit. From now on I'm definitely going to stick to the bike paths and not go off-trail too much for the next couple of weeks at least.