Back Luck Bones

Tim Blackburn, 50, fell off a ladder in Stockton-on-Tees, England, in 2007, and shattered his arm so badly, doctors had to remove four inches of bone and attach a metal scaffold around his arm that took six years to heal completely (and then only because of help from a cutting-edge ultrasound procedure). In May 2013 — one day after he got a clean bill of health — Blackburn tripped over his dog and tumbled down the stairs in his home, and his arm “snapped like a twig,” he said.