[neverdem]

The vet across the street from me was sent home with a broken collarbone and broken ribs. They knew about them, but they said they couldn't treat them?

When home, the rib pierced his lung and it collapsed. He's been in and out of hospital ever since, and his shoulder is completely frozen.

Something is rotten.

I'm not an orthopod, but I'm not sure about that. My friend had a fractured rib. NY Presbyteraian Hospital Medical Center, the one associated with Columbia University, sent him home without further treatment, except pain meds. I doubt your friend had much more than a chest tube to re-expand his lung. It's not like casting fractures in long bones.

Non-displaced fractures are frequently left as is if there aren't any complications. My mother fell fracturing her pelvis. She recovered in a nursing home with physical and occupational therapy. There was no surgery or casting done. Your friend got a "frozen shoulder" because he didn't move it for too long. It's very common after injuries to the upper arm and shoulder. Patients need to get exercise ASAP, possibly even physical therapy, but they have to move those joints involved with the shoulder. People "baby" it too long, and voila, you have a frozen shoulder.

[I still care]

I think that was the problem. They didn't prescribe any physical therapy, or they didn't do it in a timely manner. And how could the rib puncture the lung if it wasn't displaced? He broke the rib, and they sent him home. It punctured his lung while he was home. His wife came in and found him spitting up blood. That doesn't seem right to me.

By the way, this man is a genuine war hero. He was shot down in Vietnam, ended up gutshot and permanently disabled. The ambulance comes in the middle of the night on a regular basis for him, what he has given for our country makes tears come to my eyes.

[AZLiberty]

For a frozen shoulder, I highly recommend the book The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, by Clair Davies. In my humble understanding, frozen shoulders are due to trigger points (muscular microspasms) cascading from an original injury. The injury causes one or more trigger points that then pull on other muscles causing other trigger points and so on until the shoulder freezes. This book describes pressure techniques to relieve the trigger points.

Way less painful than PT, and way more effective.