Sunday, May 15, 2011

Be Careful



People....be careful. Young people die too. Its one of the hardest things in medicine. The hardest thing I have to do is break the news on someone young that died. Children are the worse. These cases involved 20-30 year olds.

A few friends were celebrating a graduation. I suspect alcohol was involved. At 3 am, their car veered off the highway and ran into a tree. Only one was wearing a seat-belt. The other 2 were ejected through the windshield and landed about 30 yards away. They were pronounced dead shortly after making it to my ER. The guy wearing a seatbelt.....no injuries. Both victims left behind young wives and parents.

A 23 year old was helping his brother fix their car. The car wasn't on proper lifts. When he stuck his head under the car to take a look, it came crashing down on him crushing his skull. It was horrible. He left behind a brother, sister, and parents.

We are never too young to die. Be careful.

ER Doc

8 comments:

Crazed Nitwit said...

So very true and one of the reasons I worry with my 20yo son being in the Army...

Webster said...

That's fair warning for everyone, but especially to the young who lack not only experience and expertise, but often good judgment. I look back and sometimes wonder how I made it this far, taking some of the risks I did - DUI, etc.

Anonymous said...

I just lost a 27 year-old patient with six kids to AML. Two weeks before, it was a 23 year-old with really aggressive breast cancer. :(

tracy said...

These horribly sad stories make me almost glad that my almost 20 year old son, who has Asperger's, doesn't drive yet. i know any accident can happen (knock wood), however, he's not on the streets yet on his own or with any other young people......

Gen said...

A 16 year old died last week from bacterial meningitis. She went home from school not feeling well on Friday. By Monday evening, she was dead.

peny@medical uniform said...

I don't know what's with the word "dying young" that makes me sad and gloomy, eh. To die in a normal way, like for an instance a normal sickness , or old age, is widely accepted by the society, but dying at a young age and in an unexpected way is way beyond tragic.

Anonymous said...

Pediatric Oncology Nurse here. Appreciate your life, health, and loved ones every single day. Every. Single. Day.

Anonymous said...

We has a near miss one day at our loading dock at work, just a lapse in judgment. One of my coworkers has a very large 500lbs motorcycle. We opted to take it out via the hydraulic lift, as he had done before. The lift only lowers so far so a ramp is needed. He forgot his ramp so we used a 2x10 board, figured if he sat on the bike and me and a dock worker guided either side he could just ease it down. The bike started to get up on the board . . . and it slipped.
All three of us pretty much shit ourselves. The board shot out and the bike hit the flaps on the lift so the front end dropped a few inches. We all thought it was gone, and about 2 more inches and it would have been. We don't take it out by the lift anymore.
Just thinking of all the possible end results in that situation are terrifying. Somebody easily could have died.