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August 13, 2006
The Danger of Safety
Last week Shirley had a little eye surgery, a "procedure" as they say, something that is very common among those of us pushing the upper limits of middle age. The actual procedure took only fifteen minutes but it required that we spend about three hours at the hospital. Everything went well and she is doing great. I am worried that as her sight improves she will be better able to see how much I've aged.
The procedure was without pain but the recovery wasn't. The rolling bed on which she was delivered to the post op area had a safety belt on it. She doesn't think it was ever used. But, as she was getting out of bed to get dressed she accidentally dropped the heavy metal buckle of the safety belt on her stocking covered little toe. That hurt far more then anything that went on directly or immediately after the surgery.
It reminded me of my own painful run-in with safety precautions. The company I worked for during much of my career had a long, more or less monumental, walkway from the parking lot to the lobby. Over the course of time and under the influence of a root from a nearby tree this walkway developed first a crack, then a vertical displacement of about a half an inch. As far as I know, no one ever tripped over it or was in anyway bothered by it physically. I sure wasn't. It just looked bad and we wanted it fixed. Pending repair, our facilities team decided that it needed to be marked, so they placed a black and yellow striped board that was somewhat thicker than the vertical displacement across the walk up against the displacement. The first night that that safety warning was in place I accidentally kicked it about fifteen feet and nearly broke every toe on my right foot. It took me three or four days before I could walk without pain. I never kicked that board again, but several others did with the same painful results that they had found so amusing when I did it. Two days after our division president kicked the warning board and nearly broke his toes the walk was repaired.
And then there was the student doing custodial services at our local hospital, who, after mopping the floor, slipped and broke his leg while setting up the "slippery when wet" cone.
So much for safety precautions!
Posted by Duane Smith at August 13, 2006 8:33 AM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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