Views #863 | Intermediate 5

The Accident

Shibika talks about surviving a serious car accident.

Script
Vocab
Quiz



Shibika	Fred

Fred: Hi, Shibika, so you were telling me that you recently were in a car accident.

Shibika: That's right.

Fred: Can you tell me what happened?

Shibika: Yeah, in fact, as I told you before, I went to India on vacation and I had stopped in Delhi. That's the capital of India for a day, and I was going out with my friend to watch a movie in his car and he was driving, and he just, there was a turn. He took a turn and he just raced across, He surpassed this car that was going and we dashed across the divider so I banged my shoulder into one of the car doors and that is how... so I basically fractured my collarbone.

Fred: Oh, so you broke your shoulder.

Shibika: That's right.

Fred: What happened after that?

Shibika: So, we had to immediately rush to the hospital and he panicked. I was like... I was not really unconscious but the pain was... it pained really bad so I needed pain killer. I needed an injection, so I went to the hospital and there they gave me a pain killer injection and after that they took an x-ray and then they found it was a fracture so I had to be admitted in the hospital and I was admitted in the hospital immediately and I informed my parents who were not in Delhi, who were in Lucknow. It's like five hours from Delhi and I informed them the next day so... because I didn't want to panic them that time. They couldn't have come to Delhi so. Yeah, so but it was alright. They tied this bandage, plaster kind of thing across my neck and that time it hurt really bad. Yeah, it took time to for me to recover.

Fred: So, after you recovered, what was the process. So you had to go through the hospital and then they put the bandage.

Shibika: That's right. I had to be with the bandage on for a really long time, because I couldn't have taken out the bandage because in a bone fracture you can't be given any medicines or you can't be given any external treatment for it to get OK. You know, the only was for it to get OK is it's gonna heal naturally and with the bones with time. The bones are going to get fixed on their own so I had to on that plaster all the time, while eating, sleeping, no matter what I do, and I had to be in the hospital for a really long time after which I got discharged, say after ten days or something, and then I could have been taken home.

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

as I told you before

As I told you before, I went to India.

We use the phrase 'as I told you before' when we want to remind the listener of something we said earlier in the conversation. Notice the following:

As I told you before, I was sick and couldn't take the test.
It happened just as I told you before.

I banged my shoulder

I banged my shoulder into the car door.

'Bang' means to hit something very hard. Notice the following:

He angrily banged his fist on the table.
The door banged shut behind him.

an injection

I needed an injection, so I went to the hospital.

An 'injection' is when a doctor puts medicine into our body with a needle. Notice the following:

The doctor gave him an injection.
I hate injections. They're painful!

pain killer

They gave me a pain killer.

'Pain killer' is medicine that reduces the feeling of pain when we are sick or injured. Notice the following:

The pain killer helped a little.
The doctor gave me a bottle pain killers.

plaster kind of thing

They tied this plaster kind of thing across my neck.

If you have a part of your body in 'plaster,' that means you are wearing a a medical device that keeps your arm, leg, etc., from moving while bones heal. Another word for this is 'cast.' Notice the following: