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napalmnacey
2011-06-23 03:57 am UTC (link)

Well, considering what harrylovesron posted above, and the fact that I'm someone who nearly lost her sister to a fuckwad deciding to drive while ridiculously drunk (head-on smash, sister's head swelled up to the size of a fucking pumpkin, and I was a really scarred 11 year old after that, I tell you), I'm with Ebert on this one.

Maybe he did post too soon. It's something he should have said now, really.

And I gotta say, probably needlessly, drink-driving and speeding are one of those things that makes me irrationally angry.

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	ekaterinv 2011-06-23 03:59 am UTC (link)
	I don't think being angry at drunk drivers or people who speed that hugely is "irrational" at all. Personally, I think it's the only rational response. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

napalmnacey
2011-06-23 04:06 am UTC (link)

Well, I say irrationally cause in my head I'm all, "FUCK YOU, SERIOUSLY, FUCK YOU WITH A RUSTY SPOON YOU THICK-SKULLED TWITTER-BRAINED, SELFISH LITTLE ARSE-NUGGET! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU! HOW FUCKNG DARE YOU RISK PEOPLE'S LIVES, I WANT TO VOMIT ALL OVER YOUR FACE! I WANT TO SHIT IN YOUR MOUTH! I WANT TO THROW YOU IN A PUDDLE OF SLOPPY MUD BUT IT'S NOT MUD, IT'S ACTUALLY SHIT. DOG SHIT AND CAT SHIT. I WANT YOU TO LOOK EVERY VICTIM OF THIS SORT OF THING IN THE EYE AND I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM THAT YOU DID THIS BECAUSE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR LIVES, THAT YOU THINK YOUR WHIMS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEIR LIVES AND OH JUST GO SIT ON A HATPIN!"

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	kosaginolegion 2011-06-23 07:34 am UTC (link)
	considers this Nope. Still not irrational. (Also, glad that your sister made it.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

napalmnacey
2011-06-23 06:45 pm UTC (link)

As am I. She recovered quite well, considering. Her knee-cap was split in half so she needed a lot of recovery time for that, and she has pins in her leg as a result. And she's self-conscious over the fact that a crack in her cheek-bone up to the eye-socket left half of her lower face slightly paralysed. Her smile is a little crooked now, and she hates it. When she brought it up when she tried to get her compo, the lawyer for the woman that ran her car into my sister's said, "Well, it's not like you're a model, are you?" That's how they managed to decrease her payout. Serious. Cause it's only important that you're partially facially paralysed if you're Naomi Campbell. It has no impact on a person in every day life. :I

Other than that, she's done well. Husband, gorgeous girls. Did some science courses that she had always thought herself too stupid to do. I'm really proud of her.

Whenever I think about how swollen her head was, the huge dent in the Holden Kingswood steering wheel made by the impact, her knee sewn together and swollen like a fucking cooked chicken, I get cold chills. And I thank God. A lot.

It's funny. The situation moved me to tell kids at school not to drink and drive. It was kind of pertinent since we were learning about drinking and drugs at school. So at show and tell, I told about what happened to my sister. I burst into tears up there in front of class, and I got laughed at. I hated everyone for it at the time but looking back, it's a pretty heavy subject matter for 11 year olds. Aaaand now I've rambled. LOL!

/coolstorysis

Anyway, that's why I go berko over this sort of thing.

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	cyndra_falin 2011-06-23 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	the lawyer for the woman that ran her car into my sister's said, "Well, it's not like you're a model, are you?" Oh fuck you, lawyer. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...sorry wipes up (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-24 03:57 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, that was pretty much our response too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	phosfate 2011-06-23 10:11 pm UTC (link)
	"Well, it's not like you're a model, are you?" OH NO YOU DID NOT SAY THAT YOU FUCKING COCKBITE TURD-SOULED HOGFUCKER. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-24 03:59 am UTC (link)
	He did, he totally did. Lisa still swears blue over it this day, and I usually join in. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-23 06:46 pm UTC (link)
	Hah, thank you for the understanding. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	cyan_aura 2011-06-23 09:31 am UTC (link)
	I lost my aunt to two drunk drivers. Yes, two. Herself in her truck, and the guy in the truck on the other side of the road. Two drunk drivers cancelled each other out; no one else involved. And she was a fricking ER nurse, she knew what's left of people after drunk head-on accidents. Stupid stupid stupid. So yeah, I'm with you. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2011-06-23 10:17 am UTC (link)
	I'm with you. I've been lucky -- I haven't lost anyone to drunk driving. I've come REALLY close though. I wonder how many of the "Ebert should have been ~nicer~" comments are coming from people who have not been close to someone who drove drunk. My reaction is definitely not to tsk tsk at a man who pointed out that driving after drinking is stupid. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-23 06:49 pm UTC (link)
	Especially when your driving is speeding over the limit by several times and having a blood alcohol level where you're twice over THAT limit and also seriously close to poisoning yourself. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-23 06:49 pm UTC (link)
	My gramer is vurry good tonite. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kita0610 2011-06-24 05:38 am UTC (link)
	I would bet some of those comments are coming from people who frequently choose to drive after drinking. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	napalmnacey 2011-06-23 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	Sorry that you lost your aunt that way. Or any way, really, but a crash is a horrible way to go. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cyan_aura
2011-06-23 10:15 pm UTC (link)

It was probably 25 years ago now, but what ticks me off is that I still have to balance in my head everything she was while alive on one side, and "stupid how could you do that you knew better whaargarble dammit" on the other. Irrational pretty much covers it.

I had another one of those recently too, so it's kind of on my mind. Not drunk driving, but a "I wish you were alive so I could ask you WTF were you thinking and smack you SO hard in the head for thinking that" moment.

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	napalmnacey 2011-06-24 04:00 am UTC (link)
	It's not that uncommon though. People that are in the medical profession sometimes feel that because they know all about something, that therefore it's not something that can affect them so badly, that they can deal with it. I saw a TV show recently where they pulled this woman over that was ridiculously over the legal limit. She was a nurse. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

kookaburra
2011-06-25 08:11 am UTC (link)

Alcohol abuse is also a quite common coping mechanism in Emergency medicine. We're supposed to be tough and gruff and able to be totally calm in the midst of chaos, like we see that sort of thing all the time (and we do.) There's a very definite undercurrent of "If you are disturbed by this you shouldn't be in this line of work," that I think prevents many people from finding healthy ways of coping with the stress.

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napalmnacey
2011-06-25 11:28 am UTC (link)

But... isn't the best person for a job like that someone that gives a shit about what they're seeing? I mean, not so much that it prevents someone doing their job, but enough that they don't treat the patient like utter shit? Or am I talking of that which I do not know?

It's like pharmacology students. They know something about drugs and then they do all weird shit and think it can't hurt 'em.

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	kookaburra 2011-06-25 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	I agree with you. I think the attitude is partly (in the US, at least) a side effect of having the fire department so tangled up in EMS. You get that whole macho BS thing going on. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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