Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Lacerations, alcohol and Star Trek

Last night, around midnight, I was sewing up the head of a young man who had been in a fight.  He was a little 'intoxicalated,' and angry about the fight.  He had other injuries, less severe, but was frankly a bit of a mess. 

And he and I had a great time.

I have no idea how it happened, but we stumbled onto Star Trek.  With my instruments pulling his scalp and skin back together, and blood dripping down his forehead (which he accepted with casual grace), we bonded over Sci Fi.

We both agreed that Jean Luc Picard conducted himself more like a Captain should, but that you have to love Jim Kirk and his tendency to get green chicks. 

We both thought that the latest incarnation of the Star Trek franchise was truly awesome, and that we honest to goodness wanted to like Khan.  Until we remembered who he was, and what he was capable of doing.

With his head sewn up, and swollen from local anesthetic, he had an appearance that prompted me to say, 'dude, you look like a Klingon!'  We had a good laugh about that.

It would have been easy to dismiss him.  Just another drunk.  Just another crazy young man in another fight.  But I would have missed his charm, would have missed that essential connection.

Sometimes the ER and its denizens can make a sane person crazy.  But other times, all of the weirdness, all of the surreal stories, the drama and smell of blood and alcohol; all of the pain mixed with hope, it's simply...

Wonderful.

When we learn to love everyone (by which I mean the verb love...not always the emotion love), then our work becomes a daily delight, no matter how challenging.

Because we see the hurt and the broken. And we can reach them far better with love, gentility, laughter and heck, Star Trek, than we ever will with policies, procedures and sterile professionalism..

Edwin 'Bones' Leap
Chief Medical Officer, Starship Emergency

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