Search terms used: broken leg permanent damage, shattered leg permanent damage, shattered tibia, comminuted tibia, broken arm nerve damage, fractured radius nerve damage, leg brace, leg orthosis, arm brace, arm orthosis, fume exposure immune damage, chemical exposure immune damage.
I know, that sounds extremely morbid all jumbled together like that! Anyway, my story revolves mainly around a man's break down & recovery involving PTSD, which he suffers as a result of a series of tragedies in his childhood and teen years.
In very short summary, he was in a car accident at age 8 which killed his family, abused by one of the foster children taken in by his adopted family, and in another car accident at age 18. I need him to have physical reminders of these events, and I need them to be the sort of thing his children (his 10 year old son in particular) would ask about. And for simplicity's sake, let's use his name:
1. Age 8 car accident. 1970s, Norway, family living in Elverum at the time if it makes a difference, though they were likely travelling between towns at the time. The accident involves a chemical transport truck like the ones that carry feul to gas stations. Tobias' mother and older brother (10ish) die at the scene, and his father dies in transport to the hospital. Tobias needs to survive this accident intact with no major injuries to body or brain, though concussion & temporary amnesia are likely, but needs to be immune-compromised in some way as a result of exposure to the fumes from whatever chemical was being transported. The immune suppression (I think that's what I'm going for) need not be permanent, but needs to last long enough to make adjusting to a new family that much more miserable. Question: What was in the chemical transport truck? I'm thinking hydraulic fluid or hydraulic oil. Maybe it was en route to the nearest air port or something. Is that realistic? In order to make his lack of injuries more believable, it's perfectly fine to assume that the rest of the family died of exposure instead of their injuries.
2. Age 18 car accident. 1980s, Oslo, Norway. The car is T-boned on the driver's side while leaving a parking lot, so they were hardly moving but the other car was going reasonably fast. I haven't decided if this is an idiot speeding in the parking lot and they were reversing out of a stall, or if they were trying to exit the parking lot onto the road. Suggestions on which scenerio is more believable would be appreciated. Tobias is in the back seat behind the driver, and the other passenger is in the front seat beside the driver. The driver is a 17 year old girl (Kate) and the other passenger is a n 18 year old boy (Søren - all adopted by the same family).
