An interesting anecdote from the Odd Job files:
One night back in 1998 (well it could have been 1999 I suppose) I was working night shift at a large Johannesburg hospital. There was a big commotion at the casualty entrance and much swearing and some laughing. It turns out that a domestic dispute had gone a bit far and a husband and wife had got themselves injured. Here's what went down:
1) Wife and husband got drunk and wife got slapped around by the husband. Husband then went to bed.
2) Wife got out a large potjie (a large iron pot) and cooked up some porridge oats, the sticky rolled kind with sugar and butter.
3) Wife pulled back the covers on the husband, and poured this scalding hot porridge on him from head to toe, burning him badly.
4) Husband screamed, rolled out of bed, ran out of the room. Wife got in the bed and went to sleep.
5) Husband went to the kitchen, cooked up some oats in the same pot, drew the covers back on the wife, and gave her porridge also.
The two of them came to hospital with serious burns.
But...they were swearing more at the inconvenience of being in hospital than the fact that they had burned one another. As far as they were concerned, the matter was settled. It was one for one and that was all. You could smell the oats all the way in the X-ray department, stuck to their skins.
The woman was so drunk that when the nurses drew a bath for her, she sat on the edge and crapped in the water.
That's one of many 'fine' experiences in a large trauma unit. If those are the ones we are seeing, there must be several times as many that we don't get to see.
One night back in 1998 (well it could have been 1999 I suppose) I was working night shift at a large Johannesburg hospital. There was a big commotion at the casualty entrance and much swearing and some laughing. It turns out that a domestic dispute had gone a bit far and a husband and wife had got themselves injured. Here's what went down:
1) Wife and husband got drunk and wife got slapped around by the husband. Husband then went to bed.
2) Wife got out a large potjie (a large iron pot) and cooked up some porridge oats, the sticky rolled kind with sugar and butter.
3) Wife pulled back the covers on the husband, and poured this scalding hot porridge on him from head to toe, burning him badly.
4) Husband screamed, rolled out of bed, ran out of the room. Wife got in the bed and went to sleep.
5) Husband went to the kitchen, cooked up some oats in the same pot, drew the covers back on the wife, and gave her porridge also.
The two of them came to hospital with serious burns.
But...they were swearing more at the inconvenience of being in hospital than the fact that they had burned one another. As far as they were concerned, the matter was settled. It was one for one and that was all. You could smell the oats all the way in the X-ray department, stuck to their skins.
The woman was so drunk that when the nurses drew a bath for her, she sat on the edge and crapped in the water.
That's one of many 'fine' experiences in a large trauma unit. If those are the ones we are seeing, there must be several times as many that we don't get to see.