United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi All: It is good to know that I am not the only one with this type of injury. I received a LTBPI on July 1,2001 from a motorcycle accident. I hit a telephone pole with my left shoulder while doing 45 mph. Along with many other injuries I am doing ok. I can move my fingers fairly well and my tricepts are comming back ok. I still cannot use my bicept and the arm will not raise from the shoulder. The doctors said that the nerves were only streatched and not detached so I have a 50/50 chance that it might return. Good luck to you all and GOD bless.

Hello! My name is Kelly,33yr old man. Bilateral TPBI due to medical negligence from abdominal surgery. Since 8/00. Thought I was only one in the world with this injury. Great support place here.

My name is Debra, I live in Texas. I have a right BPI with TOS from a large sign falling on my arm and taking me to the ground while shopping in a store. I am in and out of this site at least once every week or so.

I'm Robbie's wife. He has left tbpi following motorcycle accident in July 2000. Went through tendon transfer 4 weeks ago on wrist.
Come from Northern Ireland

Lurker - Cindy mom to Melanie and Matthew both robpi.

Terry, docs told me the same thing. I finally pushed hard enough to get surgery and my nerves were severely damaged. No amount of time would have allowed them to heal. After surgery, I'm getting my biceps back and my deltoids are actually starting to work a little bit now.

it's been 6 days since Karlos posted for the roll call, it's raining today and i am a sad anorak when it comes to figures so i analysed the responses. Of the 45 responses 33 were from tbpi, 23 guys and 9 (or 10...i think Sela is a woman but i'm not sure...sorry!) women. Causes break down like this;
motorcyclists 18
cars 4
surgery 3
airbag 1
climbing accident 1
fall on ice 1
tree attack 1
snowmobile 1
attack by sign in shop 1
hit by train 1
taxi 1

sorry to the bikers to count you all as 'motorcycle accident' when in most cases the actual cause was a third party, ie truck, other motorist, cow etc...funny, if i tell peeps i got hit by a truck who was on the wrong side of the road they are very sympathetic, if i say i was on a motorbike at the time suddenly they think it's my fault...despite the police telling me if i'd been in a car i'd have ended up with the engine on my lap and almost certainly dead AND prosecuting the truckie for dangerous driving... anyone else found this? Anyway, thanks for posting everyone (including the obpi and parents) and welcome to the lurkers & newbies, i knew there were a lot of us out there but this is a great response so far. Take care out there :0)

dislocated shoulder,im pretty sure the er docs caused my bpi, ken

Well Jenny thats pretty impressive stuff!!

Thanks to everyone for replying, im sure theres more out there itching to join in so how abouts a prize for the 100th poster..... A secondhand Rubics Cube anyone?

karl

Great participation! It's nice to have this info all as part of one post for easy reference on each ones individual story. Someone should also do a map with pushpins. I also think (I'm sorry to say) that there's still more out there. Shortly after Eric was injured, I talked to one of our "Health" feature writers about doing a story on BPI (I work at the major state newspaper in advertising and every Tuesday we publish a section called Health). I shared information with him including the booklet that I received from UBPN (is it called Outlook?). He said when he approached his editor, the first question was "how many people are affected"? I was able to supply #'s for OBPI but not trauma. I thought it would make a good general interest story and we need to make people aware that it's real and at least intially a devastating injury. They never did a story but he told me that maybe they could mention it as part of a feature on chronic pain which is OK with me too. A week or so ago we ran a feature on an arm amputation because of a young girl (14) in CT who was injured at school (woodshop). They re-attached the arm but it wasn't successful and they had to amputate. I saw my friend in the cafeteria and asked him "how many people are affected by amputation?". He got my point. Anyways, I wanted to let you all know that I've been working on this for about a year and a half now and maybe someday....... By the way, my newspaper's website is ctnow.com. I think it's a great site and hopefully some day.....