He Ran Over My Foot!!!

I had been training greyhounds for 1 year and I was elibible for my first years paid vacation and I was leaving for Florida the next day. It was at the end of a long, hard day at the track because I worked extra so that the people I work with could get some rest since I would be gone for a week.

I was worn out and I was walking to my truck to go home when the kid from the kennel next door pulled up right in front of me (effectively blocking my way) and started to laugh and tell me jokes. This was especially irritating because I had just told him the day before not to ever bother me again because of a stunt he had pulled with his truck while giving me a ride back to my kennel.

But I was tired, so I leaned on the hood of his truck so that I could rest while I tolerated whatever he was saying to me. All of a sudden he chimed out, "I have to go. I'm late." When BOOM! He gunned the gas. I WAS STILL LEANING ON THE HOOD!

I did not even have time to stand up. I tried to jump back but I couldn't get out of the way fast enough! I managed to get my first foot out of the way but my second foot didn't fare so well. He proceeded to run over my foot! Here is the really nasty part that I didn't even remember happenning for a few months afterwards.

The tires on the truck were bald. There were little wires sticking out all around the perimeter of the tire. These wires got caught in my tennis shoe, so that after the truck actually ran over my foot my shoe was still stuck to the tire! To make matters even worse the kid didn't realize he had run over my foot and he kept moving while my foot was turning with the tire!

As the tire slowly turned, my legs were becoming entangled with each other and my foot actually turned around completely backward so that it was facing the opposite way that it was supposed to. I, of course, yelled out in pain at first but the pain was so completely devastating that it took my breath away. I knew if I didn't do something my foot was going to twist completely off my body!

I tried to flip my other leg over the leg that was connected to the wheel. This generated enough force that my shoe finally disengaged from the tire and I fell to the ground writhing in pain. He immediately stopped and jumped out of his truck to help me. He and another friend that had seen the whole thing wanted to take my shoe off and look at my foot. I stopped them because I thought that the shoe was the only thing holding my foot together. I could just picture them untying my shoe and my foot spilling all over the pavement!

They loaded me in the truck and drove me to the guard shack where the paramedics were called. They called Bobby and he came up from the track to check on me. Here is where I made my big mistake. Instead of letting the paramedics take me to the hospital, I had Bobby drive me there. The reason it was a mistake is because it gave the track a chance to cover everything up and there was no public record of my injury.

At the hospital they x-rayed my foot and miracle of all miracles nothing was broken. I just had soft tissue damage they said. The doctor even told me I would be able to go on my vacation if I used crutches - which I did. What they didn't tell me is what having soft tissue damage meant.

All my ligaments and tendons were severely damaged. The veins and nerves were also severely damaged. It took 9 months of me lying in bed with my foot elevated before I was able to walk well enough to go back to work. Everytime I would put my foot down it would swell up bigger than a football in a matter of minutes. It was an extremely painful recuperation.

In the meantime because there was no public record of my going from the track to the hospital the track covered up the incident. They would not release the report that the guard filed at the guard shack that night. The other kennel's insurance refuse to pay for my work missed and my medical bills (which is all I asked for - no pain and suffering). They said the boy told them that he had run over my foot intentionally and so they didn't have to pay - the 16 year old kid was responsible. His dad shipped him back to his mom in Florida and I didn't see him again for 5 more years.