please, my friends

I spent the day in the trauma ICU at the hospital where I work, just down the hall from my own floor. Please, dear reader, if you take away nothing else from the words I write, please hear this and never do these things:

1. Ride a motorcycle without a helmet, even if it is legal
2. Drive or ride in a car without a seatbelt, even if you are only going across the road to the supermarket
3. Cross the street without looking both ways
4. Get high, drunk, or both and do any of the above activities
5. Let your health go to crap, and then do any of the above activities

Friends, I do not want you as my patient.

I do not want to have to hold your mom's/dad's/child's/lover's/friend's hand while they try to deal with this person they once knew who is hooked up to a million machines and, while still alive, will never, ever be the same again. I do not want you to wake up and find that no, you are not dead and in heaven, but instead are a quadriplegic, permanently dependent on a machine to help you breathe. I do not want you to be riddled with life-threatening injuries and even more life-threatening regret and remorse.

Years ago, I was riding in a car with coworkers to go for a luncheon across town. In the front passenger seat, one of my coworkers, a crotchety, old-beyond-her-years lady refused to buckle up. When I asked why, she scowled at me, "I'm not afraid to go home to heaven." And I thought of her words when I see these patients, whose families are only sometimes facing the decision on whether to withdraw life support or having to say goodbye. More often, they are left with a loved one not quite at the pull-the-plug stage, but are instead riddled with permanent injuries, facing a lifetime of complicated medical treatment, constant threat of infection or further injury, and an unimaginable road of emotional turbulence.

I know it sounds preachy. I know you've all heard it before. But if it wasn't such a violation of privacy and against the law, I would conduct daily tours through that unit. Please be safe.