It was awful
Man I will never forget this.


A few years ago I went to go and pick up my girlfriend who was finishing one of her shifts when she was a house officer in the A&E of our local university hospital. We were going to go quickly home, where she was gonna have a shower, then we were going straight out to dinner. We were walking out the doors when pandemonium hit and about 4 ambulances came wailing in with about 6 or 7 people being wheeled into the casualty.

Turns out there had been some gang fight or something after a football match and they had all been using broken bottles and stanley knives. I was pushed to one side while my girlfriend raced over to start treating people. As they didn’t have enough room in the treatment rooms, people where being treated and stabilised in the corridors and the curtained off examining rooms. Now I am more than a little squeamish when it comes to blood but I couldn’t believe the carnage I saw.

There was blood everywhere – it was like a charnel house. There was the unmistakeable meaty coppery tang reeking the place out. I saw one poor bloke have a tourniquet taken off his thigh and the steaming blood hit the fucking ceiling before they did something to it to make it stop.

The floor was red and doctors and nurses were skidding around on it. I have never seen a clearer or more realistic vision of hell more realistic since. It was like an abattoir.

My girlfriend came tearing over and asked me to sit with some guy who had been stabilised. I didn’t know this if this was normal or not so I just sat down next to this skinhead. He was deathly pale, and his skin looked chalk coloured with clear wax melted on and set.

He was muttering about something which I have no idea about but was struggling to get something out of his pocket. His wallet hit the floor with a pregnant squelch. I picked it up to give it back to him but it fell open in my hand to a picture of a beautiful wife and 2 young boys. He looked at me pleadingly and muttered something which I didn’t catch.

I don’t know but why would someone with so much to lose get involved with petty gang stuff? I tucked his wallet into his thankfully un-bloodied shirt pocket.

It all got sorted and my girlfriend came to get me to go. She enquired if I wanted some Turkish buffet for dinner. Turkish buffet!?! Fucking hell I couldn’t eat for 2 days!
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Fri 8 Aug 2008, 19:18, 2 replies)

Maybe
What he was trying to mumble was exactly what you just said...something along the lines of "How could I have possibly thrown this all away for something so stupid?" Heres hoping he is a changed fellow now.
(twuntysomething, Fri 8 Aug 2008, 22:59, closed)

That, or
he thought he was dying and was telling you to tell them he loved them.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Sun 10 Aug 2008, 22:46, closed)