Can I share a non-caving personal story with you?
I came home from work today, like most days, exhausted from driving all over BFE. I was looking forward to a relaxing evening and spending some quality time with my 2 year old daughter. So I walk in the house; and she runs to me with open arms saying "Daddy, Daddy!!!" ( she is often asleep by the time I get home. ) When suddenly she trips up on the carpet and goes flying head- first into a wooden chair. Red stuff started spurting everywhere. All I could think to do was to get her to the hospital as fast as possible. I thought the hospital was only 7 miles away. Along the way, my wife indicated that the hospital closed down and we would have to go to the next town 25 miles away in heavy traffic to get to an emergency room. That seemed uncomprehindible in the moment of an emergency. I was also disappointed in myself that I had no "earthly idea" where a hospital was. ( The town where the hospital is located is not on my list of places I frequent. ) There was an emergency clinic a few miles away that was open till 9, so we went there first. But they had closed early with no explanation. ( There was no sign on the door explaining why they had closed early nor where to go if you have a real emergency and that really upset me ). It took us what seemed 45 minutes to get to an emergency room, and it was packed full of people. Our initial response from the clerks was pathetic at best. Fill out the forms, take a seat, etc. We got to the hospital just in time, because a few seconds later, they would not have let us in, because they had a lockdown due to someone trying to kidnap somebody in the hospital. They wouldn't even let us go back out to move our car from the loading dock where we had left our engine running. Fortunately, that only lasted a few minutes. We waited nearly an hour before they put bandage on her or even had a nurse look at her. This surprised me as we were both covered in blood and the other people in the emergency room seemed surprised to see such a scene. I felt like we were in a MASH unit and not a modern hospital. Can a person not get decent service anywhere anymore in this day and age? What has happened to the world? Is it just me that is grumpy? To our surprise one of the ER staff spoke American-English, the doctor. Finally the doctor came in and said he would glue it shut with "DermaBond Skin Glue." I thought she needed 4 or 5 stitches, and was not familiar with the glue technique. But he left and didn't come back for a while. I don't know what this is going to cost, but it was our only option. I now wish I lived closer to a emergency clinic that keeps late hours. I will need a much better emergency plan as this "practice run" seemed inadequate. Do cavers carry super-glue in their cave-packs? Is DermaBond Skin Glue something you can get without a prescription. Can I buy it in a "farmacia" south of the border? http://www.dermabond.com/home.jhtml?_requestid=37628 I think cavers should learn how to apply this stuff. You stretch open the wound and clean it with a surgical cleanser. Then you squeeze the wound shut with your clean fingers and apply the glue on the wound and you keep squeezing. After about 30 seconds, you apply a second layer. And keep squeezing. Then you apply another layer. You maintain the wound shut for another minute blowing on the glue to help it dry quicker. It is supposed to require zero maintainence and heal in 5 days. One problem for cavers though, is you can't sweat or get it wet or it will pop open. David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
