May 25th Ben dislocated and shattered his ankle whilst wrestling. This left him requiring surgery to reconstruct the ankle using 3 plates and 19 screws leaving him facing a minimum of 3 months away from work. We are now approaching the end of that 3 months and a bunch of complications have left the end no nearer.

After cast removal 6 weeks post surgery an infection was found, Ben was admitted to hospital for 10 days and found out the severity of the infection where worst case scenario could mean amputation. Following a course of introvenus antibiotics Ben was sent home for a 5 day oral antibiotic break. At the next hospital appointment the family were told that more surgery was needed to open up the infected wound, flush and clean it whilst taking swabs of the tissue and bone sample in the infected area.

Ben has now been back in hospital away from family and no nearer going back to work to earn money for 14 days and counting, still waiting for the results of those samples. Back in a plaster cast and trying to keep his spirits as high as he can. 2 of the samples have returned showing positive for the presence of bugs, the origin and nature of which are still being discussed in microbiology. The other samples are still waiting to cultivate. The antibiotics being used to treat mean that there is still no set date to get home to family.

We are not out of the woods and worst case scenario is still (and probably will always be) on the table.

As you can imagine there has been a huge financial and emotional strain on the family for someone who suffered such a horrific and public injury.