It was actually my father who was injured, not me. We were on a skiing trip in another country and my dad was snowboarding on his own while I had gone off on my own earlier in the day. It’s unclear what happened, but it’s suspected that he caught an edge while dropping into a run. Ski patrol found him and suspected that he had sustained a spinal injury. They took him down to the urgent care clinic at the base of the mountain, but for some reason, they never bothered to check his back or perform an X-ray, despite suspecting a spinal injury. They simply advised him to see a chiropractor in three days and sent him on his way.

When my father returned to our accommodation, I could tell that he was in shock and a lot of pain, but he insisted that he would be fine in a few days once the swelling went down. I didn’t get the full story at the time, but later found out that the doctors had suspected a spinal injury but failed to do a proper examination. My mother and I made the decision to call an ambulance after three days when my father still couldn’t get up and the swelling hadn’t gone down.

When we returned to the urgent care clinic, a competent doctor finally ordered an X-ray and found that my father had broken his L4 vertebra. He was fortunate that it had broken in half and hadn’t become displaced, as it could have easily become a spinal case. He ended up in the main hospital for five days and was on the brink of needing surgery. It was a long road to recovery, but we were grateful that it wasn’t worse.

I still can’t comprehend why the doctors didn’t perform an X-ray or a proper examination when they suspected a spinal injury. It’s alarming that they simply advised him to see a chiropractor in three days, as his injury could have been much worse had we not taken matters into our own hands.