One of great joys of being an emergency doctor, (and also one of it’s sobering features) is that, on certain occasions, there will be unfortunate members of the public who present to hospital having done something ridiculously stupid. Many of these foolish acts are chronicled in the Darwin Awards.
On those occasions, you get the opportunity to reflect with reassurance and satisfaction that hopefully you would never do such a thing.
I had one such case recently.
A man from an outback town was called urgently by his neighbour who, having found a large snake, had attempted to kill it by hitting it on the head with a stick. Having not quite succeded, the neighbour was unsure as to what to do next and sought assistance.
The man, who had spent a large part of the day doing not much but consuming alcohol jumped into action. Noting that the snake was still wriggling (and therefore presumably still a danger) grabbed it and in the style of Ozzy Osbourne bit off its head.
Despite spitting out the head immediately, he told me that “I think I accidently drank some of the blood”, and not surprisingly “a short time later I began to feel sick”.
This man did something that we’d all would agree “probably wasn’t a good idea”. Fortunately for him, not being bitten by the snake and only having ingested a few drops of blood, his risk of being envenomed was practically zero and he was able to be discharged from hospital (once he was sober).
Unfortunatley for him but rightly so, justice prevails and he has been charged with cruelty to animals.
There is something about the combination of Australian males, alcohol and snakes that often gives rise to this kind of potentially deadly situation. Lifeinthefastlane reveals another amazing lucky to be here story of the male + alcohol + snake combination.
There are countless other occasions when a patient is relaying their story on how they came to end up in ED that where we as doctors think to ourselves, “that probably wasn’t a good idea”. If anyone would like to share a story (de-identified, of course), feel free to use the comments section.
About James Winton
'In the Fast Lane': That probably wasn’t a good idea…. http://su.pr/1Hho7c Man + snake + Ozzy Osbourne + EtOH = predictably bad result…
Man bites snake http://su.pr/1Hho7c
Oh wow
) RT @precordialthump: 'In the Fast Lane': http://su.pr/1Hho7c Man + snake + Ozzy Osbourne + EtOH = predictably bad result…
RT @precordialthump: Man bites snake http://su.pr/1Hho7c
a) Riding your motorbike wearing the equivalent of a speedo and then swerving to avoid a cat = PCA dependent plastics admit.
b) Sanding the floor with an orbital sander wearing no undies and loose rugby shorts with bits hanging loose = entering the ED with your privates entrapped in a sander.
a) Riding your motorbike wearing the equivalent of a speedo and then swerving to avoid a cat = PCA dependent plastics admit.
b) Sanding the floor with an orbital sander wearing no undies and loose rugby shorts with bits hanging loose = entering the ED with your privates entrapped in a sander.
I treated a roofer for a nail injury…….to the scalp. Apparently he had ‘An itch that he could not refuse’ and scratched his temple, with his Nail Gun. On CT scan there was the nail all 3 inches protruding into the frontal lobe. He had no major complaint, and in fact wanted to leave when I reminded him that he had a Nail in his Brain.
“It’s in the brain?”
“Yes”, I answer.
“Is that bad?”
Upon arrival of his girlfriend, very smartly dressed in a business dress, she looked at him for a long moment and said “So, you shot yourself in the head with a Nail Gun! ‘Betcha won’t do that again!”
The Neurosurgeon successfully removed it and he was discharged a day later. -TH
That is friggin’ ACE!