Few hours spent in A&E (ER for you guys on the sane side of the Atlantic) and to my surprise have been released home in a splint for the moment awaiting a 'phone call with a date for surgery.  

Not the way I'd planned spending my Sunday afternoon but could be worse I suppose, at least it happened with the rest of the family around so we managed to get the land locked up and me loaded in the car in a half hour or so.  Out of interest, how long do you guys in the US expect to wait on an ambulance generally?  Here, roughly a 20 minute drive from the hospital, on a Sunday afternoon my ambulance ETA was 1hr40-2hrs.  about 15 years ago when I was taken out off my motorcycle & badly fractured my right tib/fib I was sat on the road probably 45minutes before ambulance came. Just curious how your guy's wait times compare (also interested what a 20minute ambo ride would cost you/your insurance)

Cheers, better luck to you all! 

Thanks all, for the well wishes. Certainly won't be aiming for a do over of this performance though Dave!  First job when I get back to the land is rooting out that damned wire at either end & chopping it (and it's conduit) into tiny harmless pieces!  and Dirt Farmer, everything crossed it stays that way with the lack of experience for you.

Shocked at the cost of ambulance for you guys, and already quite some variance in service depending on area. Hate to think what the actual surgery would run me too! How much does decent health/accident insurance cost there?  Can't fault the treatment I received yesterday but have a sneaking feeling it'd be somewhat less than a week's wait for the actual operation had I had some sort of private coverage.

Yikes-  sorry to hear that, Dan... but I've been there.

About 5 years ago, I was working on a site in Saint Charles, Mn... found the ONLY patch of black ice on the whole parking lot.  Right foot slipped about 2", then found solid ground and stopped, and BANG!  Tore that quad right out. 

Repair of the tendon wasn't the bad part.  The fact that there was a chunk of cartilage folded over under my kneecap, and that doctors wouldn't do anything about it for just shy of 2 years, was the bad part.  Long story, bad story, did not end well.  If they'd been willing to spend $1200 to MRI it when I first reported the problem, it would have saved them a significant amount of money in the settlement... and my knee wouldn't now be in the lead-up a replacement.

As someone who was a volunteer firefighter and EMT for many years, I take real offense with your post.

I have left Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas morning present opening when my kids were small and many, many middle of the night calls to help people in distress. I have sat through hundreds of hours of training, so I could do a better job helping out in emergencies. I have done hundreds of hours of fundraising, so we could afford decent equipment. This was all done without one penny of compensation and many times actually cost me money out of my pocket, not to mention time away from family. 

Also, we don't get one penny of pension.

... and then people like you call our emergency response "a clown show"??? 

I sincerely hope none of the volunteers in your area know your feelings about the service they provide, especially if you have a real emergency that you need police/fire/EMS! The reality is they would respond anyway and do their best to assist in any way they could, despite your attitude.

Thanks again folks, truly appreciate you all.

Prayers from here in WI going to you too Dan. 

My BIL just had it done to his knee, same scenario and he's walking pretty well now after only 5 weeks of healing.  So, I hope your time frame is about the same.