Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for May 02, 2015

Hope those are the only things broken. And thank you Jan for not killing Phil off.

Have a speedy recov’ry, Officer Jackson.

Riverbend Hospital will fix him right up

Well, now you know what it will be like married to a cop.Some soul searching in the near future I imagine.

Being married to a cop is not all bad. Been married to one, who became Chief, for 28 years. He’s now retired but as we see towns like Boston we are saying “bad time to be a cop”. Federal government is not supporting local law enforcement agencies. But Officer Jackson seems to be in a decent town. The “running red light” could happen to anyone. However I’m not a motorcycle fan. So glad mine was protected by his squad car.

What a blessing. :’) And Alix and Holly are there hugging Val the entire time. :)

Actually, the fact that he got hit had very little to do with his job. Anyone could be involved in a car accident, especially if the other driver is at fault. I do bet this means he will have difficulty with the motorcycle, at least for a long time. (No lovin’ either, with a broken pelvis.)

I know this is a comic and not real life BUT if Phil is already in emergency surgery because of his fractured pelvis that means it’s a very serious injury. Possibly of life-changing proportions, and he may yet die from it. He potentially has many exciting internal injuries. I work in trauma. Fingers crossed for a full recovery!

Ah, thank you. (I checked this one first to see if there were more details.)

I know this is just a comic but some comics can be a lot of real life for many people at one time or another. Any of us can be hit by a car (in a car, riding a motorcycle, bike or pedestrian) and our family will be having a similar conversation in the waiting room.

@catchup. I thought also that it was much more serious than broken leg and pelvis to be in surgery. But I’m not in medical field.

And this is also where they realize that they’re already a family regardless of whether Phil and Val are married.

A broken pelvis is, usually, very bad news. It is possible to have a minor and insignificant fracture, but for immediate surgery to be required then we are talking about a very serious injury. The problem is that the pelvis supports a lot of fragile organs which can be terribly damaged by the broken edges of bone.

She’ll be fine. She’s already known the worst in her life and came through it whole. The chance of dying from any cause in the line of duty in a year is generally less than one in seven thousand. In a country saturated in guns and with hours a day driving, that number has probably approached its theoretical minimum of what training can achieve after trending down over the decades, although about a fifth are vehicle crashes, and that number can be brought down with training, driving training being distinctly short-changed in U.S. police training. .There are about as many suicides each year, and wives like Val matter. .

Cartoon? This strip has been my soap opera for the past (almost) 20 years!

Speedy recovery Officer Phil!

I’ll say they do! And they quite often take it to totally ridiculous levels, to boot!

What I like here is Val counting her blessings, not lamenting what has happened. Yes, Phil was hurt, but he is still alive; that should be her focus. Also, one has to wonder if Phil has been injured to the point that it will end his police career. Some injuries are so severe that the person who sustains them never completely recovers.

With a broken pelvis, it looks like Officer Phil is gioing to be at a desk job from now on. Will he still want to be on the force if he can’t ride his motorcycle?

Good for Val: she has her priorities straight! For us readers: It’s fun to discuss various possibilities to come in the story line. However, let’s remember that this is Jan Eliot’s strip; she tells the story, and our guesses and predictions are only guesses. Please, let’s don’t get to the point where we’re angry if she doesn’t do what we thought she would. I’ve seen that happen, and it can be very ugly. So far, I think we all agree that she tells a good story; and she didn’t take the cheap way out by killing Phil; so let’s hang on for the ride. (Here endeth the sermon!)

While a broken leg won’t cause too many problems in the future (except knowledge of pending rainstorms), the broken pelvis may end his motorcycling days.

My mom was in her seventies when she fractured her pelvis after getting tangled up in an ironing board. She didn’t need surgery or even a brace, just stayed at our place and used a walker for awhile. She didn’t seem to suffer any significant aftereffects. So there are varying degrees of severity in pelvic fractures, as @catchup mentioned, above.

Interesting discussion about “it’s only a comic” and people getting worked up over it. This arc got me all teary-eyed, though I know that everything is springing from the fertile imagination of Jan Eliot. Parts of our brains evidently have a section that responds to fictional joys and sorrows, even when other parts know that it’s fiction. (Hmm – wonder where I can send Phil a fictional get-well card?)

Broken leg and pelvis – have to pin everything back together. Body cast after that probably. Plenty of physical therapy later to relearn how to walk and strengthen the muscles. A lifetime of aches and pains. Not to mention any soft tissue injury.

HOORAY! Thanks Jan!

@Rosanne. What is the matter with Boston? Did you mean Baltimore?

Everything’s Gonna Be OK (EGBOK).

I think that to some people (readers of For Better or For Worse in my particular experience) comics are a way of escaping reality — onto which they then project reality.

We do get involved with our “imaginary friends”. Remember the big to-do when “For Better or Worse” had the dog die of old age? There were people writing in to adopt it!

As Catchup says, a broken pelvis can mean ruptured intestines, or a pierced bladder, and who knows what all else. But Phil is alive, and that’s all that counts. Val can live with the PT, and all that goes with it.

My son was in an accident like that. He is all right now, thank God, but he has trouble boarding an airplane as his left leg bones are mostly titanium, which sets off metal detectors.

I enjoy happy endings like this.

Death penalty for traffic violations.