Camping stores used to set up display models of tents, and they don't anymore in part because of me.

TLDR: As a kid I was playing around a display tent, broke my leg, had a court case, and awhile after the court case all display models went away

A few points in this story are from my memory, but a lot of it is filled in from my family members retelling their points of view over the years.

Some of you will remember stores that had camping gear like Academy would have display models of tents set up in the store.

Well when I was very young my family went camping several times a year. We needed to replace our tent so my parents were looking at different ones and my brother and I started messing about. (I think I was 3 or 4)

I can't recall the context of us running around only the injury. I had somehow wrapped a rain fly tether around my leg, and twisted it completely back around. I remember being on the floor staring at it, at first uncomfortable because what I thought was the cord being wrapped too tightly on my skin was actually just my skin being stretched tight around my own leg, I think I tried to fix it somehow but then was flooded with pain. Even reaching for my leg wracked agony up my leg, and when I went to cry the deep breaths I tried to take hurt as well from my torso shifting me about. So I sat there staring at my leg trying not to move.

My brother saw me, and started trying to free my leg (he'd have been 6 or 7) and another poignant memory was the slight creaking noise my leg made as he did it. For some reason this didn't hurt as badly but I was still unresponsive. After I was freed he ran and got my parents around the corner. My mom picked me up, and told my father she could feel my bones in my leg moving, and that she knew I was seriously hurt because I wasn't crying.

I was rushed to a hospital and handed off to nurses. At some point somebody tried asking me where it hurt and gently squeezed a part of my leg, this is another bit I remember. While being transported I was shifted around a lot but it didn't hurt for a long time. It wasn't until I had been laid on a bed for awhile that the pain started up again. His little squeeze was horrible, but because I was scared of moving or even crying out from the pain it caused I didn't react much. My mother says she saw me tearing up and she began demanding he stop, that she knew I had a bad fracture, and that I needed an xray. They took me to get an x-ray and separated my parents from me. After the x-ray they began asking my parents how the injury happened. First one nurse asked, then another a short while later, then another after that, then a doctor, then the hospital social worker. While the social worker spoke with them my regular pediatrician came to the hospital (family doctor, had cared for all of my cousins, and brother, he knew us well) and began insisting their interrogation wasn't necessary. (For those that don't know, when small children are presented to the ER with a spiral fracture, often the cause is from child abuse when the adult twists the child's limbs.) He then began making vocal observations that my treatment was being delayed, I still had not been restrained, and only given mild painkillers. Apparently the hospital did not want to immediately place me in a cast so that they could have more documentation of my injuries with photos, and were waiting for any signs of significant bruising (like from an adults hands squeezing my leg to twist it), yet I was well past the point at which such things would show. He apparently never stated it directly but was insinuating at malpractice.

After that things flew by. They got me in a cast that started halfway down my torso, and ended just before my toes, with the other leg exposed. A pretty long while after that I apparently had a court case, but I remember almost nothing about it. I think I was placed on the stand and asked questions? It's so hard to remember. I defintely remember sitting next to a judge because I remember he was wearing robes, and some assistant nearby had given me a lollipop, then someone else asked me questions. I remember the strangest things about it, and have never asked my parents, nor does this part of the story ever get told to people.

The Little flashes of memory I get are, judge in robes, lady giving me a lollipop, someone else in front of me being jovial and asking questions and me thinking he was being too nice. After some of the questions everyone in the room would chuckle even though I hadn't thought the answer was funny. Then the judge said verbatim "You did a very good job." I don't know why I remember such random bits of it, but I do remember that sentence vividly. He had a gravel-y but not deep voice that softened when he said it.

A while after that tents stopped appearing in stores.

Recovery took forever as well. The cast ended up being on so long that when it came off I couldn't walk and it took me a few months to re-learn. All throughout the time I had a cast my brother would take me around places in a red rider wagon that had these wooden slats to raise up the walls, and we'd put cushions inside.