Thumbs up for Kiwi nurses
A reader writes: "In 1987, I was working in the Packhorse & Talbot pub in Chiswick, London when I picked up a bottle of beer covered in condensation from the back of the bar not realising that one side of the neck had been snapped off. It sliced across the pad of my left thumb to expose a gapping wound that severed nerves almost to the bone. If I had been taken to a hospital at the time by my employer it would have been stitched, treated and there would have been medication for the pain. Instead, my boss taped up my thumb up with Elastoplast tape that had no dressing strip. The next day I flew to the Oktoberfest in Munich. I travelled with my thumb raised above my heart to ease the intense throbbing pain. On my third day at the camping ground I was staying at, two Kiwi nurses approached me and asked to take care of my thumb as they had been watching me and knew if I didn't get treatment urgently I would lose my thumb to gangrene. They spent most of an hour or more soaking and cutting away the dressing that had to adhered to the wound. The injury took months to heal internally and has left me with a distinct scar. Those nurses saved my thumb and I would very much like to thank them. If one of those nurses is reading this or someone knows one these compassionate nurses, can you let them know ... Thumbs up!"
Superfrights I
"When my son was about 9 years old he gave me the fright of my life," writes Dale Rigby. "I had just unpacked a suitcase in my bedroom from a recent trip. Shortly after I went to lift it up to put it away and my son leapt of it out saying 'BOO'. Took me a while to get over that one."
Superfrights II
"When I was 15 we lived in a house with an external garage where the chest freezer lived," writes a reader. "My sister, 14, and I hated being given the task of fetching the frozen bread for the next day from the freezer because we were scared of the dark and there was no light. We would generally run out into the dark around the back of the house to the freezer and sprint back. One night my sister was sprinting back from the garage and as she came around the side of the house I jumped out from behind the wall fully encased in a white sheet, she screamed like she was being murdered and lashed out with the frozen loaf of bread smacking me square on the head and nearly knocking me out in the process. Bread is much like a brick when it is frozen."
Good read: Conversations that changed my life is a great series of very short personal anecdotes by eight writers, the first is The Conversation That Saved My Life, By Tanya Gold. "I had developed a habit of throwing myself down escalators, or walking on the outside of balconies in high heels, and I took a lot of cocaine. I told myself I had split into two, because it is easier to cope that way; if there are two of you, then half of you is still good. I would stare into the glass and mouth, "I hate you" at the other one, or, "I wish you would die." I was 27..." Read more here.
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