Looking At The Breaks

What was amusing in the circumstance of the compound fracture, was the adults attempting to remove all those children present, who of course, all wanted to see the blood and the injury, so they could be ‘grossed out’ (as the American slang puts it). Then, the adults may not have realized it, but exposure to such scenes is very important in assisting the full development of all people. The need to react positively and in a stable and rationale way in such circumstances can only benefit others should the need arise. In my current work, I am often appalled at the ‘cringe’ factor shown by members of the public when just discussing such things. The lengths they will go to avoid such scenes is incredible. Yet at traffic crashes, people will ‘rubber neck’ but the moment their actual assistance is requested they will physically look away not wanting to catch your eye, in case they are given an instruction or asked for help.
I recall my older sister some years later, when they were living on the farm, and her husband and I had taken her three year old with us to the shed. We had to kill and prepare a sheep for food. We had explained everything that was to occur and why, and, thought everything was fine. It was for him. He returned to the farmhouse afterwards and happily passed the story on to his horrified mother. Now, she was of course horrified, not about the actual killing of the sheep, but that her three year old had watched it from start to finish and wasn’t phased by it. She was furious that we had not only allowed it, but, that we had taken him there with us for the purpose of him seeing the entire process. We then ‘copped’ it. When she got angry, my sister was fearful (almost as scary as my father, but more in a contained ‘potentially explosive contained manner’) she certainly told us off. We tried to explain the benefits. She explained to us the probable, potentially deep and lasting psychological shock to such a young mind which our actions and ‘unthinking stupidity’ (her actual words I believe), may have initiated. She appeared not to understand the benefits.
Now I would argue, had I been exposed to such a scene when as young, then, while I may still have thought that my brother was going to die, based upon the amount of visible blood (Cutting a sheep’s throat does produce a fair amount of visible blood as well), but I certainly wouldn’t have raced around trying to carry him home. Calm and sensible response to the necessary first aid would more likely have been the result. Or I would have learnt at least, exactly what my response may have been. It took a few more injuries and broken bones before I was able to react completely calmly to any injury I encountered. And I have had and witnessed many, many of those.
(Continued Tomorrow)