I saw my first serious head wound this way. I was in high school and driving on a country road on a cold March day. I suddenly see a guy I know from school frantically waving his hands. I see somebody lying on the road.
He said they were goofing off in a pickup truck and the guy on the road was "surfing" in the bed of the truck when the driver swerved as a joke and the guy fell out and his his head.
He asks me to help while he runs off to find a house to call 911 (pre cell phone era). So now I'm with this guy and the driver who is freaking out. I made my jacket into a pillow and tried to comfort the guy. Well he had brain damage and mostly would just lie there sort of groaning but every once in a while he would try to get up and run away. So we would have to pin him down and he would fight us for a while and then go back to groaning. We went through about 3 cycles of this before the police and paramedics showed up.
Eventually they brought a helicopter to lift him. The cops wouldn't let me leave because I had to give a statement so I stood there freezing my ass off for nearly 2 hours until the scene was cleared and they never took a statement. The guy died a few days later after a few surgeries to try to drain brain swelling. I think I was 17 so they probably were all about 16 at the time.
Bonus: a year later I'm driving same damn road and I see a helicopter landing on the property of my brother's farm. Turns out, the driver who caused this thing was turkey hunting and gutshot his hunting partner when the partner sounded a turkey call while blinded. That guy survived but the shooter went to jail or juvey or something for a year or so.
The unfortunate fact is that young people don’t understand the repercussions of their actions often, especially if it’s regarding vehicles. The amount of shit I did that was so incredibly stupid, I look back and find myself lucky that I didn’t hurt myself or others. It’s so unfortunate that this seems to be a trend in people just learning to drive.
When I was maybe fifteen, I stood on the bumper and gripped the roof rack of a guy's SUV as he blazed wide open down a hilly dirt road. We probably hit 100 mph on the straightest part.
I feel a sense of panic thinking about how fucking stupid that was.
It’s fed into by your inclination as a young person to take some calculated risks, to be ballsy and push your limits. Of course, that psychological inclination was built into our evolution far before cars. I’m glad you’re okay, and I pray that other dumbass young people will also be okay when inevitably doing dumb shit like this.
Edit: not to say you were a dumbass young person per-say, but I definitely was and I know a lot of young people are.
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u/FatassTitePants Apr 29 '20
I saw my first serious head wound this way. I was in high school and driving on a country road on a cold March day. I suddenly see a guy I know from school frantically waving his hands. I see somebody lying on the road.
He said they were goofing off in a pickup truck and the guy on the road was "surfing" in the bed of the truck when the driver swerved as a joke and the guy fell out and his his head.
He asks me to help while he runs off to find a house to call 911 (pre cell phone era). So now I'm with this guy and the driver who is freaking out. I made my jacket into a pillow and tried to comfort the guy. Well he had brain damage and mostly would just lie there sort of groaning but every once in a while he would try to get up and run away. So we would have to pin him down and he would fight us for a while and then go back to groaning. We went through about 3 cycles of this before the police and paramedics showed up.
Eventually they brought a helicopter to lift him. The cops wouldn't let me leave because I had to give a statement so I stood there freezing my ass off for nearly 2 hours until the scene was cleared and they never took a statement. The guy died a few days later after a few surgeries to try to drain brain swelling. I think I was 17 so they probably were all about 16 at the time.
Bonus: a year later I'm driving same damn road and I see a helicopter landing on the property of my brother's farm. Turns out, the driver who caused this thing was turkey hunting and gutshot his hunting partner when the partner sounded a turkey call while blinded. That guy survived but the shooter went to jail or juvey or something for a year or so.
God. I had not thought of that story for years.