Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life
The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication. He didn’t believe me and kept using the bed sheet to try to yank my shoulder back into place. I was howling in pain as I underwent what felt like an excruciating form of medieval torture. When a nurse walked by, the doctor asked her how much fentanyl she had given me. She said she had not given it to me yet.Horrifying.