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Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

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Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#41

Post by Dahoon »

Tronno wrote: post #28

Reading this gives me flashbacks of my own fall from about 45 feet, which broke my spine, pelvis, and ankle. The initial days after the surgery were confusing, painful, and scary. If the fractures had been another half inch to the right, I would have been paralyzed for life. Indeed, I lost control over my bowel functions, and for a few agonizing days was unclear if I would ever get them back. I learned how to insert…

After i was cured from cancer I also got another look on life. One thing I did was get a motorcycle again and I left my girlfriend. Better to enjoy life right now than live in the future (dreaming of when/if). Now I got another girlfriend and know real love and ride motorcycles with her. Wish I woke up earlier though but better late than never!

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#42

Post by everydayDonut »

I don't understand how he takes no meaning out of this. The meaning is clearly that there shouldn't be a gaping hole on the top of a 5 story building that people can access. Or at least that you shouldn't walk around a building you're not familiar with at night.

Anyone who thinks there's no meaning to take from these kind of events is wasting a huge opportunity to learn that small things like a gap in a roof can mean life or death

And he goes back at the end! He feels the fear like he should, looks at the gap and is more concerned that he'll learn the wrong lesson than learning no lesson!

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#43

Post by ReactiveJelly »

klyrs wrote: post #8
WJW wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really seems like a "hey nurse did this patient have their fentanyl yet?" would have resolved this issue. Anyway if it's really 100x more potent than morphine you'd think any person that did have it in their bloodstream would not be all that capable of stating that they have not had their medication yet.

This is one of the most pernicious aspects of the opioid crisis. Doctors are taught to be hypervigilant regarding "drug seeking behavior" which is pretty much a 1:1 list of behaviors of people whose suffering is "genuine." Number one criteria seems to be that the patient is requesting medication. In so many cases, the patient is the most reliable source of information... but when it comes to pain management, the pati…

> Doctors are taught to be hypervigilant regarding "drug seeking behavior" which is pretty much a 1:1 list of behaviors of people whose suffering is "genuine."

Slate Star Codex wrote about this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudo...

Basically, an addict wants to look genuine, so a lot of genuine patients have to put up with stuff designed to cut off addicts. Like the scary "FBI warning" that only shows up if you actually pay for a DVD.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#44

Post by ReactiveJelly »

arkitaip wrote: post #36
chasd00 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this happens a lot. my stepfather was in the hospital, a nurse came in and gave him a shot of morphine and walked out. another nurse came in and before my mom could stop her gave him another dose. He coded from the overdose but pulled through. my sister worked as an admin in some department at a hospital I can't remember. a patient coded and they did nothing because they were marked do not resuscitate but the patient…

This is why checklists have become are a huge thing in the medical field. In your scenario, imagine if the first nurse had it drilled into her that she must tick a box on the patient checklist, which lies very visible next to the patient and is almost impossible to not notice, and you have a physical system that makes it difficult to commit mistakes

That sure would be nice.

I haven't had any problems of this scale, but my doctor can't even schedule a follow-up appointment 3 months in advance.

They can't even use a calendar, much less a checklist.

My pills are prescribed for 3 months and they always manage to hem and haw and almost miss the window as if the passage of time was a recent concept that their practice was unequipped to deal with.

On the other hand, every psychiatrist I've ever had, had no problem getting my anti-psychotics or anti-ADHD medications sent to the pharmacy inside of a day.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#45

Post by mncharity »

salimmadjd wrote: post #23

They found that half of the patients who fell from the height I did – 18.2 metres Some high school physics: s = 1/2 at^2 about 1.98 sec of free fall time. v = at which gives us about 43 mph of impact velocity. There was a time I was a volunteer at the SF General ER room when I was considering going to the medical school. We had a guy who fell from a 5 story parking lot that survived with a broken foot. The police cam…

TFA mentions a key bit at the end: landing on, and crushing, two plastic milk crates. Crumple zone.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#46

Post by ReactiveJelly »

kls wrote: post #34
papeda wrote: post #4

From the end of the article: > To come so close to death does not provide a shortcut to wisdom or contentment. It doesn’t answer all your questions or eliminate your weaknesses. I’m fundamentally the same person I was before, but with one big difference. I’m viscerally aware how tenuous our existence is. How you can be walking on solid ground only to find it suddenly disappear from beneath you. The meaning comes in w…

Years ago I had a legitimate attempt by taking a combination of a full bottle of opiates and benzos (A pretty deadly combination). I was pretty hell bent on being dead. I know at the time, my thoughts where use a gun (I am a big second amendment advocate, so was not going to be a statistic in the argument), carbon monoxide, pills or hanging. The reason I bring this up, is I actually think there are two main branches…

> I just wanted a break from life.

I feel that often.

Even a drug coma isn't enough. I'd come back to new bills and house maintenance or other little adult annoyances like that. And my friends and family would age without me.

My ideal vacation would be: Quit work at 5 pm Tuesday, do whatever I like for a year, and come back to work at 9 am Wednesday.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#47

Post by DoingIsLearning »

mncharity wrote: post #40
mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

Doctors, surgeons in particular, are both project manager and individual contributor. At peak IC work load, the manager role gets starved for cycles. A failure to track "X was intended - did it actually happen?" is a typical of this. Having someone with you can help. "He's right, Doctor, the nurse hasn't yet ...". A role of maintaining a clear picture of project state, making sure everyone is on the same page, and mo…

This is a really long winded way of being apologetic about bad practice.

Patients lie all the time, but if a patient warns them they have received no pain medication or muscle relaxants or whatever, then their job was to check their medical record or with the staff nurse if it was true or not. Any other argument is a distraction.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#48

Post by freedomben »

s5300 wrote: post #6
mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

Ehh. Not the worst thing. People with Ehlers Danlos have to pop visibly dislocated joints back into place daily (and yes, it's very much painful as fuck) Arguably the most horrifying is when a male dislocates their hip and one of their testicles falls back into that area. You can imagine what happens when somebody attempts or succeeds in shoving the bone back into it's socket when there's a testicle also sitting in t…

Damn man, please have some compassion for others who may not have as high a pain tolerance threshold as you. Not everybody experiences everything exactly the same.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#49

Post by rootusrootus »

everydayDonut wrote: post #42

I don't understand how he takes no meaning out of this. The meaning is clearly that there shouldn't be a gaping hole on the top of a 5 story building that people can access. Or at least that you shouldn't walk around a building you're not familiar with at night. Anyone who thinks there's no meaning to take from these kind of events is wasting a huge opportunity to learn that small things like a gap in a roof can mean…

> The meaning is clearly that there shouldn't be a gaping hole on the top of a 5 story building that people can access. Or at least that you shouldn't walk around a building you're not familiar with at night.

Looking at the pictures, I'd vote for another option. The roof of that building isn't designed for casual use. The wall around the edge of the building is calf-height with no railing. What they're doing is likely trespassing, and they chose to accept the risks. The meaning to take from this experience is that you should be extra careful when you go places that are clearly not meant for you to be.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#50

Post by jedberg »

mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

I've dislocated my shoulder twice. The first time they gave me strong opiates and then put it back in. It was painless.

The second time the doctor said pain killers would be dangerous and insisted I have absolutely no pain killers in my system before reseting it.

His description of it feeling like medieval torture is apt.

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