the essential
In mid-April in Muret, a driver was hit by a vehicle that was reversing. Pinned against his truck, his two legs were shattered. After a long operation, Nicolas is learning to walk again and is improving his morale in a rehabilitation center in Colomiers.
The pushes of the arms move the wheelchair forward in the corridors of Cabirol, in Colomiers. Left leg horizontally stuck in a splint, Nicolas Pinton comes out of his second daily physiotherapy session. “It’s hard,” warns this truck driver. “It’s been more than two months since the accident. But alone, I still can’t walk, even with crutches.”
His smile hides neither pain nor anger. “I’d be better off at home. But as long as I’m not independent, the doctors won’t let me go. I have to make progress.” The challenge is launched. This strong man dreams of his garden “in a sorry state” and his grandchildren. “They came to see me but, well, it’s not the same.”
“The guy backed up really fast.”
On Thursday, April 18, at the wheel of his truck, he had just unloaded earth in a gravel pit in Muret. “I know it well, I go there often. When I arrived, the loader was far away. I emptied my dumpster and went down to see if there was anything left inside.”
The drama happened at that moment, in a few seconds. “The guy backed up at full speed. I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything. And yet there are alarms, a reversing camera is fitted to the machine. I found myself in the mud, on the ground. At first I didn’t even feel any pain…”
DDM, – DR
Yet his left femur had just pierced the skin of his thigh. His right tibia and fibula were shattered. “My left knee ligaments also gave way,” said the victim, who tried to raise the alarm for many long minutes. “No one could see me and the pain was mounting, horrible.”
Another driver finally saw him. Firefighters and a doctor from Smur evacuated him to Purpan hospital and surgeons specializing in orthopedics. Eight hours (!) of operation, ten days of hospitalization and overwhelming pain. “I couldn’t stand morphine or anti-inflammatories. I enjoyed it. At times, even today, I tell myself that I would have been better off giving it up.”
DDM, – DR.
“I have to be able to walk again!”
His wife rolls her eyes at him when he verbalizes this anxiety. But these negative thoughts, the rehabilitation sessions and the progress that takes a long time to materialize, have difficulty chasing them away.
“I’m suffering, I sleep badly, I’m anxious, I don’t even answer the phone anymore. I loved my job. I had a great boss who was great during the accident. I ran three times a week. I gardened. I was hyperactive. Now? I’ve lost 10 kg, I have no more muscle, I can’t go home and I don’t know if I’ll be able to work again.”
His voice catches, a few tears trouble his eyes. Nicolas breathes. “I even cancelled my holidays, the breathing of the whole family… I have to be able to walk again. I’ll go home and come back, to the day hospital. Unfortunately the physiotherapy sessions are far from over.”
The smile returns. Afterwards we will have to think about insurance, perhaps about justice with the support of Me Alexandre Martin to measure the consequences of this accident “which should not have happened. The guy was not vigilant. The gendarmes came ask me questions. They wanted to know if I had my harness, my yellow vest. I don’t know. One thing is certain: I had both my legs. Today I’m just trying to get them back.
