Zombie Cliche Lookout: Further Harm
Helping people out is important, and in times of turmoil and despair (the zombie apocalypse, for instance), this goes double. Of course, there’s helping people out and there’s bumbling around and making things worse, and in all the excitement of the zombie apocalypse it can be pretty easy to accidentally fall into the latter category. And if you’re not in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and accidentally injure someone in a misguided attempt to help them, you might just find yourself in considerable trouble from civil lawsuits filed by the person your were attempting to help (or their next of kin, if you really screwed up).
The best example I can think of from a zombie movie is in Shaun of the Dead, when Shaun is fighting a zombie and Dianne decides to help by throwing darts at the zombie, only to hit Shaun right in the side of the head. Luckily for her, the onslaught of zombies prevented Shaun from suing her for pain and suffering.
About this Episode:
I really wish LEGO® or one of the many customizers out there, made a proper trauma/EMT bag. I decided to just use a briefcase because that was the best option available. I chose brown because, in the low light, it would probably look closer to red than the black, gray, and green versions.
Yeah, LEGO really needs to make a good EMT bag.
Right? I like when the customizers do more civilian oriented stuff like that. Even a solid looking first aid kit (FAK) would be great.
Joke time: Why don’t zombies bite lawyers? Professional courtesy! 😀
I’ve always heard that as a vampire joke; nice to see a different twist on it.
I like the green handled brick with the white EMT tile that comes with the ambulance. I think it’s a fabulous make-do. In fact, I liberated it from the EMT ambulance drivers and gave it to my nurse avatar fig.
With being struck by car, there are some really bad things that could have happened to our friend Clark, like a fracture or lacerated spleen or liver, things that can absolutely kill a man without modern medical intervention. Ditch medicine can’t prevent death from massive internal bleeding or embolism.
Let’s hope Clark’s survival is in the script.
Spleen injuries are serious shit. A kid I know in junior high died from that following a snowmobile accident.
Splenectomy is one of the most common ED surgeries. You can live without one, but not with one bleeding into your gut. That, and peritonitis is a mother; it kills quick and it’s hard to treat on our best day.
So what you’re saying is that we should try to avoid being hit by cars, if at all possible?
Motorcycle accidents are the worst.
Oh yeah, I can just imagine.
They recently repealed the helmet law here in Michigan. It amazes me how many people don’t wear one. You’ve got very, very little in the way of protection on a bike, why take a away what little you have?
Ya can’t legislate intelligence.
In an EOTWAWKI scenario I would be very careful with vehicles. I know that folks love to tout dual-sport bikes for their BOV’s. I would be very leery in grid-down situation. We take ambulances and air evacs for granted. When the balllon finally does go up, all of that modern emergency medicine goes right out the window. and car accidents become much more frightening.
So brush up on your convoy tactics, including competent co-drivers. Use the buddy system with multiple cars in the convoy; and be extra careful when negotiating turns, passes, road cuts, and the like.
I still can’t wait to read Clark’s reaction. Sure they rescued him. They also may have killed him.
The question I ask is how integral is Clark to the ongoing plot? We all know that’s the one factor that assures survival in zombie fiction.
SQUID: Stupid, Quick, Under-equipped and Inevitably Dead. Also may refer to the shredded squid like appearance of road rash after a crash.
And yes, it is amazing the number of people wearing little to no protective equipment on motorcycles. My father rides one and he wear full motorcycle body armor, head to toe.
This saved him quite a bit of pain and misery a year or two back. He managed to hit wet gravel just right and dropped the bike into a muddy rock covered enbankment. Took the faceplate off his helmet, instead of his face like it would have if he had not been wearing a helmet, bent one of the supports in his boot (no idea how the hell that happened), and broke his arm right below the shoulder joint. That turned out to be so nice and clean it stayed in place, so the Dr just gave him some pain killers and told him to leave it alone for a few months. Nobody even knew he broke it until he told them.
As for the bike, well, apparently they like to plate all the little plastic bits on the side with gold or something, judging from the cost to replace the turn signals and such. Otherwise she was fine and he (with help from a passerby, since he knew something was wrong with his arm even if he didn’t realize it was broken at this point) dragged her out of the ditch and drove her home, all covered with mud.
Would have been a whole ‘nother story if he hadn’t been wearing armor, that’s for sure. Probably wouldn’t have died, but it’s a good bet he’d be enjoying the wonders of facial reconstruction.
Dave, I also live in Michigan and I have to admit I get a little freaked out seeing these guys riding around without helmets. I used to ride myself and I was always amazed at the guys who would ride in shorts and flip-flops and a tank top. I know some people who still ride and now dont wear helmets. They argue that the helmet impedes hearing and visibility and that neck injuries are the most dangerous type of injury in motorcycle accidents due to the added weight of the helmet in a wreck. It all sounds like BS to me, but hey Ive got enough to do to protect my own head.
I really appreciate what Bo is saying about how much we take emergency medical services for granted. As an outdoorsy kind of person I try to always be aware of how susceptible to injury I am while hunting, fishing, or hiking and how difficult it would be to get medical attention if necessary. I remember reading once about an orthopedic surgeon who treated people in the arctic regions of Canada. He remembered an Inuit hunters brought in over the years who had suffered a broken leg while hunting seals out on the pack ice. The man knew that there was no help coming and that he would freeze if he didnt get to shelter so he actually walked on the broken leg until he could reach his snowmobile. I don’t remember how far he walked on the leg but I remember the surgeon explaining how difficult it had been to repair the fracture because he had actually worn all the jagged edges off the two mating ends of the bone.
What everyone is saying about lack of medical attention also concerns me. I was on a 8 hour flight across the ocean once when an elderly woman cracked her head during turbulance about half way. I think it hit people just how far away from any sort of medical assistance they were when they started paging for a doctor. (As far as I know, she was fine, or at least as “fine” as you can be after getting knocked out.)
At any rate, it does kind of amaze me how these elderly people and those with health problems put themselves into these sorts of situations knowing that if their issues do pop up, they’re completely and utterly screwed for the next few hours. Not something I would want to do if I could stroke out or whatever any time.
I didn’t realize you were from Michigan too, Damage. Whereabouts?
Metro Detroit Area. Macomb County
Very cool. I used to work in Warren and Sterling Heights. Nice areas as far as I could see.
Im on the northern edge of Macomb County. To give you an idea, the gy who lives across the street from my neighborhood still keeps horses. Both Warren and Sterling Heights got hit pretty hard by the last downturn. There are neighborhoods in both those areas where you can still buy a decent house cheaper then a new car. And of course most of the D still looks like an on location shoot for “Resident Evil.” I seem to remember that you mentioned living Grand Rapids a few posts back. Is that right?
I live in Lansing now. I want to college in GR, at Grand Valley.
Too Funny, I went to college in Lansing…..well East Lansing.
A Spartan, eh?
Yep…from wayyyyyyy back.
I know in WA state, we have the Good Samaritan Laws. They are there to protect people giving help. It is always assumed when a person can’t respond, that a request for help is implied and you act on it.
As to customizers, most of them seem to like the military aspects. Have you checked out what Brick Forge may have? I know they’ve got a red bag printed with a red cross symbol on it in their inventory somewhere.
And hopefully they can determine quickly that Clark is well enough for them to move before the zeds arrive.
Maybe he’ll have a near death experience that will change his attitude; or, barring that, he’ll at least see that someone went out on a limb for him, and realize that it’s good to help others.
That, or he’ll be pissed when he learns that they almost killed him.
All solid options.
Brick Forge, you say? I need to check that out!
I know I have seen them before, but not on their website. Must have been on a reseller’s.
They do occasionally do one offs and bonus stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was one.
http://www.brickforge.com/
If I may be so bold, here is a link for them.
They don’t have the red pack with the first aid logo. I know a reseller had them at Brick Con this year. But they do have a lot of other things could fit the bill of what’s needed.
worry freak, didn’t they say that he could wait in the car?
They sure did.
then why didn’t Ted just stay in the car?
Maybe he was scared of being left alone.
heh yeah, by the way, i think that Left 4 Dead gives me insperation of some sort, i dont know why though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm9KU-ZLfbI&feature=relatedh, maybe its because of this comercial
I’m think that when someone’s in a potentially deadly situation, getting them out of it takes preference over possible trouble from moving them – in other words, “can’t be moved” is subordinate to “has to be moved”.
Question:
Um, huh?