Breaking a leg

[wsanto]

(11-26-2012 07:16 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I have had 5-6 medical doctors tell me that the fibula is not a weight-bearing bone in the leg and that Booth would have been able to mount with that leg in the stirrup.

Make that 7 medical doctors. The fibula is not a weight-bearing bone. The tibia bears one weight in normal circumstances. A simple fracture or buckle of the fibula would not prevent one from running out of Ford's and mounting a horse using the leg with the fractured fibula in the stirrup to lift and throw one's weight over the horse (especially if most of the weight was on the instep of the foot). The pain, probably similar to an ankle sprain, from the initial injury could easily be masked by adrenaline.

In my opinion, Booth may not have realized the severity of his injury until he was well past the Navy Bridge as his adrenaline waned and the swelling from the injury increased and started throbbing inside his boot. He was probably in a great deal of pain by the time he reached Surratt's Tavern.

Of course, this does not rule out other theories regarding this injury.

The OP's story of the minister that conducted his day after breaking his fibula in a ditch is a familiar story with this injury. And he didn't have adrenaline masking his symptoms.