Althouse: "It sounds counterintuitive, but it's important to leave the object in place."

July 22, 2011

"It sounds counterintuitive, but it's important to leave the object in place."

Medical advice that might prove useful some day.

22 comments:

The Crack Emcee said...: "It sounds counterintuitive, but it's important to leave the object in place."

That's what she said,...; 7/22/11, 9:30 AM
Scott M said...: "It may sound counterintuitive..."

"...but we have to pass the bill to see what's in it."

"...there's nothing wrong at Fannie and Freddie."

"...you can spend your way out of a recession."

"...jobs saved or created."; 7/22/11, 9:37 AM
Christopher said...: This kind of reminds me of the post you had on drowning in that I once again thought this was common knowledge.; 7/22/11, 9:39 AM
Triangle Man said...: @ScottM

but the medical advice is true.; 7/22/11, 9:39 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: That's what they teach you in first aid training.; 7/22/11, 9:43 AM
Original Mike said...: Too bad nobody ever told Steve Irwin.; 7/22/11, 9:44 AM
Michael K said...: I've seen some pretty impressive looking objects sticking out of people. The dumbest thing I ever did was when I was a first year resident. A guy came in with a butcher knife sticking out of his neck. He had stuck it in right by his trachea and it was all the way in to the handle. He was lying there looking at me and he said, "I thought you were supposed to die when you did this."

Well, I pulled the knife out. Nothing happened. He went to the ward after a few hours of observation.

Boy was he lucky ! You NEVER do that ! Fortunately, he and I were spared a practical lesson about why you never do it.

That was 44 years ago but some things stay with you.; 7/22/11, 9:49 AM
cold pizza said...: Don't tug on Superman's cape. Don't spit into the wind. -cp

wv: "antsl" and gretl.; 7/22/11, 9:50 AM
Curious George said...: Reminds me of the construction worker that had a piece of conduit go through his head. They asked him how he was in the e-room to determine cognizance...he said "Fine but the whistling is driving me crazy"; 7/22/11, 9:51 AM
DADvocate said...: Martin Luther King Jr. knew this when he was stabbed with a letter opener in 1958.; 7/22/11, 9:55 AM
edutcher said...: According to The Blonde, the worst thing you can do is just yank out the offending object. In many cases, said object is all that stands in the way of a fatal flow of blood.

Leaving it in is often SOP. At least until the ER docs can have a look at it.; 7/22/11, 10:11 AM
ndspinelli said...: Anyone who watched cowboy movies knows that..you keep the arrow in until you can get to a whiskey soaked doc in town.; 7/22/11, 10:25 AM
Curious George said...: edutcher said...
According to The Blonde...

EVerytime you reference your wife I think of a friend whose wife is 6' tall..he calls her "The Tower"

When you ask him to do something like go golfing or to a game he always responds "I'll have to get clearance from The Tower"; 7/22/11, 10:36 AM
edutcher said...: Curious, you may laugh, but, after 43 years, there isn't much she doesn't know.

Nurses are like sergeants in the Army, they keep the doctors from making stupid mistakes until they learn enough to know better.

And they fix (or try to) the mistakes of the ones too stupid (or arrogant) to learn.

WV "hytif" Argument when both parties are stoned.; 7/22/11, 10:42 AM
Curious George said...: edutcher said...
Curious, you may laugh, but, after 43 years, there isn't much she doesn't know.

Huh? Wasn't laughing. As a matter of fact, I think your references to The Blonde always show your respect for her. Just makes me think of my forend is all.; 7/22/11, 11:03 AM
edutcher said...: No problem.

The way you phrased it struck me as humorous.; 7/22/11, 11:08 AM
Robert said...: Go Cavaliers!; 7/22/11, 11:12 AM
MadisonMan said...: I wonder if he'll use the impale picture as a fb profile shot.; 7/22/11, 11:37 AM
Chip S. said...: From Lynchburg to Charlottesville (65 miles away) for emergency treatment--probably by helicopter--when there was a perfectly fine hospital nearby. How wasteful.

Another illustration of the hideous expense of the US medical system! Cost controls, please!!; 7/22/11, 1:51 PM
ndspinelli said...: Many high school track teams have done away w/ javelin competition because of impalings. That's really "taking one for the team."; 7/22/11, 1:53 PM
Phil 314 said...: From Lynchburg to Charlottesville (65 miles away) for emergency treatment--probably by helicopter--when there was a perfectly fine hospital nearby. How wasteful.

Another illustration of the hideous expense of the US medical system! Cost controls, please!!

Having a "perfectly fine hospital" is an important first step. You do need "perfectly fine" doctors willing to do the surgery.; 7/22/11, 3:13 PM
Methadras said...: My brother an I were little kids 11 and 12 and were practicing our martial arts in the family room. My mom had one of those glass coffee tables that looked really nice with the rest of the furniture and we moved it out of the way. We hadn't moved it far enough. During our little practice session I maneuvered myself to standing right in front of it when my brother did a spinning heel kick that got me right in the solar plexus. I knocked the wind out of me and i basically took a seat right in the middle of the glass table and completely shattered it.

I couldn't breath he got me so good. Finally I got my wind back, but he had this terrible look in his eyes and I'm like what are you looking at? and he just didn't say a word and pointed at it. I look over to the side of my left left right around my upper thigh and there is this 10 inch shard of glass that was sticking out of the side of my leg, stuck right into my thigh.

I didn't dare pull it out because by then the pain set in. It was awful. Luckily, the local emergency room was right down the street, so i told my brother to get his bike and hopped on the handle bar and we rode down there. Back in those days it wasn't a big deal for a kid to walk into emergency and get treated. They held you over, called your folks, and took care of the rest.

That shard impaled itself into my femur and they needed to tug on it really hard to just pry it from its setting. Once it was loose it felt like being stabbed when they had to pull it out. That was nasty, but kinda cool. Everyone at school wanted to see my scar and eventually the story got so big and out of control that it basically ended up being that I was stabbed in a robbery and they had to amputate my leg. Stupid kid stuff.; 7/22/11, 4:40 PM