Elbow fracture

An elbow fracture is a loud event. It cracks, it screams, it tears you out of everyday life. From one moment to the next your arm is no longer your tool — it is an immobilised, splinted, immovable construction. You can no longer grasp, no longer lift, no longer grip. You cannot even do the simplest things on your own. The elbow, which had quietly been going along for years, has suddenly pushed itself into the centre of your body. And it forces you to interrupt everything.

Medically, the matter is clear: a fall, an impact, an accident, an unfortunate movement. Bones break when the acting force is greater than what they can bear. That is physics, and that is true. But if you widen your gaze for a moment, a question remains that physics alone cannot answer: why now? Why this bone? Why this joint, which like no other mediates between doing and grasping?