Humans of NGU: Kaleb Slatton reaching new heights
Joy Till, Contributing Writer
Freshman health science student Kaleb Slatton is a guy who really knows how to reach new heights. This aspiring nurse broke his wrist trying to jump over his 6’5 friend just for fun during his senior year in high school.
Slatton’s unfortunate injury happened one day after school when he was goofing off with his friends before jazz band rehearsal. Slatton said he knew he wouldn’t be able to jump over his tall friend normally, so he put a chair behind him so it would make it easier in theory.
Slatton took the leap from off the chair, and at the last second, his friend lifted his head and sent Slatton falling to the ground. When Slatton tried to break his fall, his right hand took the impact. He at first didn’t think he had broken anything since it wasn’t a very far fall, but a few minutes later it was apparent. Slatton breaking his wrist was the first and only time he’d ever broken a bone.
A trip to the ER later, he found that part of his wrist was split almost perfectly in half. He ended up needing to get surgery for it to heal properly and to prevent it from developing arthritis. One of the last things he said to the doctor before the anesthesia fully kicked in was something along the lines of “thank you, thank you, my brutha.”
After the surgery, his mom took him to Joy of Tokyo and had a giant stuffed sloth plushie in the backseat of her car for him to lay on.
Slatton recently changed his major to health science with a concentration in nursing. Slatton has always felt comfortable with nurses and the medical environment since growing up; his mom is a nurse herself.
He said that as a kid, he would visit his mom at work, and he said it was always fun hanging out there. While he was in the surgery room for his wrist, he said that being around the nurses interested him in what nurses normally do every day. He said he liked the atmosphere, and it makes a lot of sense that he feels comfortable and has a calling to be a nurse.
To this day, Slatton still has the scar on his wrist and said that it always reminds him of his friend Owen when he looks at it. He won’t forget it for a long time.
