Stupid Mistakes People Make Which Result in Bodily Harm and Suggestions as to How to Avoid Becoming One of the Statistics

Book excerpt: Stupid Mistakes People Make Which Result in Bodily Harm and Suggestions as to How to Avoid Becoming One of the Statistics By: Dr. George L. Lucas, MD Dr. George L. Lucas, MD practiced orthopedic surgery for fifty years. During that time, he treated thousands of people who were injured in a variety of ways. Orthopedic surgeons treat patients with infections, arthritis, congenital deformities, tumors, and developmental problems, but the bulk of an orthopedist’s work involves caring for trauma patients, i.e., those who have been injured as a result of their own misadventures or those of others, such as a drunk driver. His two years as a navy surgeon during the Vietnam War brough another category of victims. Regardless of injury mechanics, one wonders how people could get into such a fix, and Dr. Lucas began to wonder about the statistics of being injured in various ways. This curiosity turned into a collection of accidents in various categories of injury and has resulted in a collection of sixteen chapters for different types of injury, auto accidents, falls, home, and industrial accidents etc. Statistics can be a bit dry, so each chapter is illustrated with an anecdote from Dr. Lucas’s personal experience. He expresses his empathy for all his patients, regardless of what stupidity brough them to his door, and concludes each chapter with some suggestions as to how to avoid becoming one of the statistics themselves.