INDEXING TITLE: RCHAN’S MAR [5-10]

TITLE:  Vanity Kills…Literally

PERIOD OF MEDICAL OBSERVATION: November, 2005

NARRATION:

         It was 6:30 am of that Thursday morning when I was preparing to take a bath.  I was on duty the previous day.  I had a good night’s sleep, everything was benign and manageable.  Suddenly, the operator’s voice came in through the hospital’s paging system, “ Dr. Gray, Dr. Gray, please proceed to Surgery ER.” The announcement was done twice.  I called the ER to inquire about the patient that needed immediate intubation.  I was informed that it was a 38-year-old-female vehicular accident patient who came in with a closed head injury.  She had a GCS of 3 when she was brought in. She had a fronto-partietal hematoma.  Blood was trickling down her ears and nostrils. Her pupils were anisocoric. Skull x-ray revealed a diastatic fracture of the parietal bones. She was gasping at the time of arrival at the ER.

         She was apparently a passenger on a scooter driven by her husband.  They were en route to Baclaran through Roxas Boulevard.  She was wearing her helmet for a short distance during their trip but decided to remove it.  She was reprimanded by her husband and was told to put the helmet back on. She refused, saying that her hair was still wet and she wanted to air dry it first before she wore it again. After some time, her husband again reminded her to don the helmet, only to be answered with an irritated voice, “Ang kulit mo naman e! Sabing mamaya na lang, basa pa nga buhok ko e. Babaho buhok ko tsaka ang pangit kaya pag natuyo sa ilalim ng helmet ang buhok ko. Flat na flat.” ( “You’re too persistent! Didn’t I tell you that my hair is still wet? My hair would smell bad and it doesn’t look good when it dries up while wearing the helmet. It becomes too flat.”).  Her husband finally let it go.

         They were in front of a row of vehicles at an intersection, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. As soon as it did, they started to move. They were unaware however,  that a passenger jeep from the other side of the intersection tried to beat the red light. A collision took place. The patient was thrown off the scooter and landed on the pavement head first.   She never regained consciousness from the time the accident took place until she was brought to OM. The residents at the ER did what they can for the patient.  After a few hours, I was informed that the patient eventually expired.

INSIGHTS: (Discovery, STIMULUS, Reinforcement, Physical, PSYCHOSOCIAL, Ethical)

         In this day and age where people find it harder and harder everyday to make both ends meet,  we give up certain luxuries to give priority to the more basic and essential needs.  Instead of using our private cars, we use public transport or invest on cheaper alternatives.  The hipper and trendier of them would be those colorful and cool scooters we see weaving in and out of traffic these days. They are more economical and more practical in the long run. But then, as long as they use local roads and major thoroughfares, they are also subject to traffic rules and regulations and safety precautions and measures. One of the most important of these would be the strict implementation of wearing of helmets, whether it be the driver or the passenger. Despite the ordinances, reminders and campaigns of the government regarding mandatory use of helmets when riding scooters and motorcycles, people still ignore them.  The statistics of unnecessary deaths and injuries from vehicular accidents involving scooters and motorcycles would prove their total disregard for the law and their safety. I even wrote an article that was published in a local tabloid last year as a part of the department’s social responsibility program stressing the importance of wearing a helmet, obeying traffic rules and regulations and safety precautions when using a motorcycle or scooter in the hopes of making a difference in my own simple way. I hope people were able to read it and roused their awareness regarding the said issue. However, the mortality rates and the number of injuries from motorcycle accidents are still rising. Now this patient is just number in the statistics.  It was heartbreaking to know that a 38-year-old wife and mother to three young children died senselessly and absurdly because of her ignorance of the law and stubbornness.  She lost her life because she refused to wear her helmet because her hair was wet!  How hard was it to just keep it on for the entire trip, wet and helmet hair and all,  as long as it would keep you alive and will not render your husband to become a widower and your children without a mother? It was a lame excuse for not protecting herself from sustaining the worst and deadliest trauma one can sustain from a riding a motorcycle…head injury. Come to think of it, this new fad in the transportation industry is convenient and practical. Scooters and motorcycles are cheaper, cause less traffic, use less gasoline, less parking space, less maintenance, etc. Who knows maybe in a few years, they would replace your average family car or they may even be what  bicycles are to China?  But then, given the dangers of using them and the utter ignorance of the law and disregard to safety precautions, maybe stricter measures should be implemented to manufacture, sales  and registration of these vehicles.  Law enforcers should keep their eyes peeled for violators too. Deaths and injuries from motorcycle accidents are preventable as long as people obey traffic rules and regulations and keep their helmets and protective gears on at all times.  As they say an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, as cliché as it may sound.