Two More Drunks

Unfortunately, a lot of the sad things I witness in my job come about because of alcohol abuse. Here are a couple of examples.

A thirty-five-year-old man came in burned. He was very drunk and had fallen asleep on a mattress in a homeless encampment. His cigarette caught the mattress on fire and by the time anyone noticed, he was badly burned.

A review of his hospital records showed he had recently been discharged from our burn unit after a prolonged stay there because of burns suffered in exactly the same scenario.

In addition to being very intoxicated, he had multiple serious burns on his previously normal skin as well as where he had received skin grafts during his previous admission.

He was admitted, again, to the burn unit.

A 34-year-old man was out drinking with friends. He got tired, so he decided to climb into a garbage dumpster and get a little sleep. In the middle of the night, he woke up as the dumpster was being emptied into a garbage truck. The compacter in the truck then smashed him multiple times. He managed to crawl to the top of the truck where a motorist saw him and stopped the garbage truck driver. 911 was called and he was taken to the emergency department.

In addition to being very intoxicated, he had bruises, lacerations, blood in his urine and a fractured pelvis.