Worst martial arts injury?

Question

What the worst injury you've sustained during martial arts? Feel free to list any rehab details. And instructors are welcome to list their students experiences.

This is a repost due to my dumb *** removing it earlier.
For whoever asked, I broke my left femur.
And some of you guys have been banged up pretty bad. I never knew you could crush your testicles.

Answer 1

I have not had any severe injuries... rather bone bruises, severe contusions, a few cracked ribs, a fracture or two. Nothing that would make me miss the next days class other than once or twice. I never had to stay out of class for more than 3 days for any injury. Sometimes I would have to take it easy on one part of my training or other for a bit, but nothing serious.

My shins and forearms are a bit knotty when one runs a finger down their length.

So, for me, nothing unusual.

Here is the worst I have ever seen in my Dojang:

This fellow was testing for his yellowbelt. Part of the test was a standing jump frontkick. Ok, normal stuff. Pump the knees, gain height, shoot the kicking leg out into the kick, retract the kicking leg, land in backstance.

Well, he forgot the "retract the kicking leg" bit and brought that thing down hard onto the floor... straight. He had obtained great height and, as you can imagine, contacting the heel of a straight leg on a floor that was cement covered with carpet was a bad thing.

His knee went off with a CRACK!! like someone had shot a .22 rifle in the Dojang. He dropped to the floor screaming.

Some of us ran to the restaurant next door for bags of ice, another ran to call 911 (the secretary was already dialing), some of us (I was one of these) stayed with him to keep him as calm as possible.

We had his knee wrapped in ice bags by the time the ambulance arrived and, last I heard, his knee was fused. Of course, he never returned.

I do not know if he ever had a knee replacement.

Answer 2

My worst taekwondo injury was earned playing taekwondo soccer! I slammed my shin into another player and earned a really, really nice bruise within ten minutes. I earned the bruise on November 6th.

This sounds like nothing, and it's really not, but the most interesting thing was the healing process. Although I'm not detailing it all here, I don't speak much Korean, so every step was filled with language things, more than I mention below.

Per Kwanjangnim's instructions, I iced it and heated it for about a week.

Then we switched to icing it plus putting metholatum cream on it.

After nearly two weeks, the bruise had grown. The whole lower part of my shin was bruised and my heel and the inside edge of my foot was purple, black, and blue. So Kwanjangnim told me to have buhang done.

Buhang is a form of traditional Chinese medicine (bloodletting) and lucky me! My boss does it! I sat on the floor in my bosses house while she sterilized a needle. She then pricked the needle very quickly all over my bruises. Unlike, say, acupuncture, this HURT! She then attached a glass bell to my bruises and turned on a machine the end of the bell was hooked to. The machine sucked the "bad blood" out. This ALSO hurt. Meanwhile, her children (my students!) took photos for me. I had pinprick bloodspots on my skin for at least a month after that.

A week later the color was much, much better, but the main site of the bruise was still very soft and squashy. ("Kwanjangnim, mallangmallanghayyo!") So Kwanjangnim told me to go to the "hospital" to get X-rays. He wrote a note detailing what was going on. The nurse asked if he was my betrothed. Um, no.

I got X-rays and then was told that I needed physical therapy. Before I started the therapy, I asked the doctor if I could keep doing gentle taekwondo. He scolded me. Hajima!

I was prescribed some topical prescription patches. I have no idea what they're called or what the active ingredient was, because it was all in Korean.

The physical therapy consisted of several days of laser therapy (shining a pulsating, radiating laser at the point), heat therapy (putting really hot wraps on the bruise), and some light therapy (shining a green light at the shin).

After a few days of this, they added some electric thing, where they put electrical pads on my shin and pulsated it. That didn't hurt, but I couldn't fall asleep like I had been during the heat/laser/light therapy!

After a few days of this, the doctor said my physical therapy was done. However, 6 weeks after the injury, it was still bruised, so Kwanjangnim sent me to get a sports massage done.

I got more therapy there, including being hooked up to machines that jiggled my body left and right, up and down, forward and backward. I also got a hot therapy bath, and a surprise session of hand accupuncture.

Meanwhile, the doctor had said I could go back to class, but I was wearing one shin guard during each soccer game (we play once a week). ^^ Now, nearly 3 months later, the spot is still slightly soft when direct pressure is applied, although it is a normal color.

Answer 3

I've had my share of jammed fingers and toes, wrenched joints and bruises. But the worst was when when I took a punch in the throat. It was back in the day before all the safety gear and we were bare knuckled. It was kind of a freak thing, nothing intentional. I fell to the floor choking, coughing and gaging. It was close to an hour before I felt I was breathing normally and I couldn't talk for more than two weeks.

That probably was not as bad as some, but it was sure scary at first and it really scared the guy that did to to me. He was my best friend. We are still in contact today, 25 years later.

Answer 4

I've had some martial arts training...Soo Bahk Do (I was 3 exams away from earning my black belt) and I can relate. I when you're 'sparring' with your friends its not a life-or-death situation and therefore your natural insticts don't really kick in. I'm sure if you ever get into a situation where you need to defend yourself, it will come naturally to you. But I also think that hours of martial arts training cannot compare to street training.

Answer 5

My two worst injuries were a broken tail bone due to a cheap shot (The guy threw the kick after the match was over). It never did heal right and I have problems with it even today.

The second was a broken nose when the referee reached in to break us apart and he was wearing a divers watch that caught me right across the nose.

Funny that my worst injuries occured in competition and not on the street. I will say that I have been in more competitions than actual fights. My training has allowed me to avoid more fights than I could have been in.

Answer 6

I've seen many broken bones, cuts bruises etc....the WORST I have ever seen was an OPEN dislocation of the thumb. If you can imagine what a dislocated thumb would look like- bending back the thumb at the second knuckle from the tip- imagine what it would look like if the end of that bone was sticking out through the skin there. It still makes me shiver...
Sensei Cox

Answer 7

It happened when I was practicing Tae Kwon Do and going for
speed instead of accuracy.

I did a round house kick and put my kicking foot on the floor
before I brought it back from the extended position.

When I put my weight on my extended foot:

I bent it all the way backwords so that I was standing on the
TOP of my foot.

I broke my ankle and tore all of my lateral ligaments.

I ended up with two pins and a kilo of surgical steel (a hook)
where my ankle used to be.

My martial arts weapon of choice these days is my cane.

Answer 8

Nothing too bad to myself (broken fingers, etc.)
Worst I saw was in a kid's class I was teaching.
We were sparring in the summer (non-air conditioned dojo of course) and the floor was getting kinda sweaty.
This one kid (who was the most level-headed and promising blue belt student) got it into his head that he should try a jumping-spinning hook kick.
It looked great - until he landed a bit off-balance in a pool of sweat and lost his balance. He didn't do a breakfall and stuck his arm down to stop his fall instead.
I heard the crack when he went down, but he got up quick and he was cradling his arm by the time I got to him. He went into shock just about instantly. I saw a large spot of blood on his white gi under his arm and asked to see his arm.
Well, poking out from under the edge of his sparring glove through his skin was a good section of his radius (forearm bone). We kept the glove on, packed it in ice and damp cloths and sped him off to the hospital for a few titanium pins.

I didn't see this, but in another class in my club a guy dislocated his hip. Apparently that stung a bit.

Oh yeah! When I was doing a demo once as a brown belt, I was doing a pre-arranged sequence with a partner. I had tonfa and he had a bo. I struck down onto the bo and he block with a rising block - no problem. He took the pressure off the block a bit too early and the tonfa nicked him just over the eye.
That opened up a 20-stitcher and the floodgates. He didn't realize it because it was a pretty clean split right on the brow bone. Lots of blood, and I heard some of the crowd saying "Was that real?" "No it was fake - just for show"
Tell that to Bob, who to this day still points out to me his barely perceptable scar in his eyebrow. (That's when I remind him of the time he threw a dart into my foot, so we're even!)

Answer 9

i havent had really serious injuries i would say, but i got a nose bleed from being headbutted before the sparring began =S, a nick on my wrist from someones nail in self defense, and apart from that, just bruises. not bad for 4 years of karate really.

Answer 10

Reaching to catch a sword falling off the wall someone was leaning against, it went thru my right hand- right beore my Brown Belt test.