[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Wow - the weirdest/saddest night I've had at my job tonight - just . . . wow (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 3/6/2006 7:12:55 PM EDT
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As some of you know, I am an X-ray technologist at a very large hospital in Tampa, FL. I have experienced many interesting things in the 7 months I've been here. Everything from preemie babies that were the size of grapefruits, to 750 pound women. However, tonight took the cake. I saw what was at the same time the weirdest and saddest thing I have ever seen. I went to do a portable chest x-ray on a man, 38 years old, in our ICU. His listed weight was only 85 pounds. I was wondering if this was an error (it happens) or perhaps this guy was really emaciated. I get to the room and walk in and literally stopped dead in my tracks. There, in front of me, was a man who, from the navel down, did not exist. What I am saying is that from his bellybutton, he had NOTHING - he was literally a torso, two arms, and a head. No pelvis, no penis, no colon, no legs - nothing. He had a bag that collected his partially digested food. He had a mass of flesh below his navel that had been sewed shut. I did the x-ray and later talked to the nurse - apparently this guy had gotten a flesh-eating infection that started in his feet and progressed up, and they kept having to amputate until they finally got it stopped 3 years ago. Wow. |
What was it, and how do you prevent it?!? 
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It is pretty interesting the perspective I have gained working in a hospital - I am confronted daily with how amazing and wonderful my life is, even with my problems and issues, because I see just how FUCKING worse it could be when I encounter stuff like this. And it makes me think that, you know, life is too short to constantly make myself wait to do the things I have wanted to do for so long. |
Vaseline Jar - and NOT the mini-travel size, either. Yes, it was a man - said he was assaulted and held down by two other men. Yeah . . . . riiiiiiiiiiight. |
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Your story in part reminds me of a local fella. He was pushed from behind in front of a passing subway train. He was trapped at waist level between the deck and one of the train cars. Upon closer inspection, he had nothing below the waist, it all had been severed. The only thing keeping him alive was the train being so close to the deck, which was stopping him from bleeding out. Sad part, he asked for his wife to be brought to the station, which was done, then of course, he had to be removed. 
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 Life is to short to Stand in linelife cvhanges in the blink of an eye if it wer eme i would have eaten a lead dinner, but at least he still has his shootin arm, i had a bad accident and the girl who hit me died, im a fire fighter emt and i have seen this shit before but my accident changed the way i looked at life very much like this guy and the best way to live it is like it was your last day "live everyday, LIKE YOU STOLE IT" |
gnarley |
that was made into a law and order episode. |
"I cannot Live, I cannot Die, Trapped in myself, Body my holding cell" |
Back in the 70s I heard the same thing had happened to guy who worked at the warehouse where I'd just been hired. He somehow got pinned between a trailer and the dock, and he lived for a while, until they concluded there was nothing left to do but have the truck pull forward. 
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Homicide: LIfe On The Street episode. |
Ribs are a stone-cold bitch to x-ray properly, though it would have only taken me at most 3 shots to do it - damn that tech must have been pretty bad. |
It was one of those cop/lawyer dramas. I watched it and know for sure it was Vincent D'Onafrio, (or however you spell it), as the guy pinned under the train. Everyone around here knows him better as Pvt. Pyle in Full Metal Jacket.  Right? |
It was also a story given by a fare on one of the first few "Taxi Cab Confessions" on HBO. |
Yep, and I think the victim was played by the fat recruit in Full Metal Jacket? |
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Oh holy crap - it gets weirder. We had to go do an abdominal x-ray on him for feeding tube placement. It is SO damn weird looking at where his body just . . . ends . . . at L4, and that he has NO pelvic girdle at all. His listed height is 3 feet - holy crap that was just too fucking weird. |