MC is fifteen years old and comes from a wealthy family. I need a plausible accident where he ends up having one or both of his feet amputated. His face disfigured so that plastic surgery would have to be put on hold for over a year.
I thought about having him burned in some kind of fire accident. But he cannot lose function of his sight, hearing, voice, or use of hands.
How do I destroy the top and bottom but nothing in between?
Have him be slightly older, in the military or a cop, and body armor protection from a blast may do it.
Or have him be the fifteen-year-old you described, carrying his backpack weird (on his chest), and have that protect his chest, cause amputations, disfigurement, but have it protect his vision, speech, ears, and hands somehow...
A bomb/grenade going off on the other side of a car. The blast going under the car could destroy his feet, and the flying glass could cut up his face.
Diabetes. If you don't manage the symptoms, you can lose extremities like hands and feet. That could be the compounding problem for other injuries (With lack of sensation in his feet, he stumbles, falls over and knocks, say, a pan off the cooker as he falls, splashing hot water over his face requiring skin crafts.)
Does all the damage have to be done at one time? Could some of the damage not be done in more than one incident.
Frostbite. Maybe skiing. Maybe during an expensive trip somewhere that went wrong, like the Antarctica or North Pole. Or maybe climbing a high mountain and a snow storm makes rescuing take time.
One or both feet might need amputation. Facial tissue damage that will require plastic surgery. He might even lose his nose from the frostbite.
Thought about skiing accident, but how you get frostbite without also affecting the fingers? Maybe lost and walking through river wet boots but not gloves.
but how you get frostbite without also affecting the fingers?
Somehow he kept his gloves on while losing his boots.
How about he's hunting in the winter and steps into a bear trap. That's how he loses his foot. And everything is covered except his face which gets frostbite.
The problem with flying glass or something to disfigure his face would most likely go into his eyes as well.
ETA: Are bear traps still used? Or is that an 1800s thing? LOL
The problem with flying glass or something to disfigure his face would most likely go into his eyes as well.
If he wears glasses or has goggles on for some reason, that could allow damage to the face while protecting his eyes.
Car accident.
Broken glass and debris lacerate his face.
Engine driven into front seat passenger crushes lower legs and severs feet. Pressure of engine on crushed lower legs stops blood flow; so he doesn't bleed out.
Delay caused by treating other more critical victims of accident prevents surgery for reattachment of feet until it is too late. Crushed legs, loss of feet, lacerated face, and other injuries take months to heal. Other surgeries on his more critical injuries and his recovery periods are required prior to cosmetic surgery for facial injuries.
Alternatively, severed feet could be mislaid/not found at accident scene prior to transport to hospital due to chaos and shortage of EMTs. That would prevent reattachment of feet.
What would prevent getting immediate plastic surgery to fix the injuries?
Allowing time to heal?
Injuries to severe?
Maybe mental health issues but don't want MC to be a basket case.
Most common would be other injuries, i.e. internal organs, where putting the patient under anesthetic for cosmetic surgery might put him at risk.
Mass casualty situation, or high demand for medical facilities, such as happened during COVID. Plastic surgery has to wait a bit for swelling to go down, then a bit more, then more for the plague...
Does it have to be an accident? You can easily have someone abduct him torture him and get interrupted before the job gets completed. If the family is affluent it could be a kidnapping attempt gone wrong and the delay in treatment of the scarring could be for PT and psychological therapy to treat the trauma and loss of limb.