"An OPEN fracture, also called a compound fracture, is a fracture in which there is an OPEN WOUND OR BREAK IN THE SKIN near the site of the broken bone. Most often, this wound is caused by a fragment of bone breaking THROUGH the skin at the moment of the injury" American academy of orthopedic surgeons...
I could get about 2000 other references if you'd like, but I think it's sister-name, "open" fracture, sums it up enough anyway. I never said there needs to be half a bone sticking out.
The mechanism of injury is even completly different obviously, that's the first question that gets asked in order to make a differential diagnosis. I would have been concerned about 3 or 4 other injuries prior to thinking it was a compound femur fracture the way he fell lol...
I don't know how this can get defended so much by everyone. Imagine your family was in hospital and they said it was a fractured femur with the bone penetrating the skin, a massive injury with huge ramifications, only for them to come back to you a day later after a student nurse probably identified it. Wouldn't you wonder? "How can it go from a fracture with an opening in the skin to a bone that normally takes a car accident to break, to a deep cut?" They made a mistake, or am I missing something? Is a laceration a new type of fracture I haven't heard of?