Better Nothings To Do

TWO DAYS!!!

He burned his face off two days ago and did not know it. Police found him naked on his bathroom floor with.... let me repeat this.... with his face burned off!! There was no evidence of fire, crack pipes, matches, pipe bombs, nuclear weapons or a friggin' tiki torch anywhere in his apartment. The plasma that had weeped out of his skin had dried to his face, giving him that "glazed donut" look (I'm skipping Krispy Kreme today). He had no clue that he was burned, had no idea how long he had been there, or when he woke up. It's like the aliens just hovered over the building and kicked him out.

Initially, he wanted to refuse treatment, and was determined that he was going to stay there. The trip to the ED apparently did not fit into his schedule between "picking toenails" and "not looking for a job." There was no mirror in the apartment, so I took a picture of him with my phone and showed it to him. The picture looked like his neck threw up. We told him several times that the infection would probably kill him if he was not treated soon. He actually had to think about this for a few minutes... That's the great thing about this job. Some patients actually make me feel smarter. Finally, he accepted transport to a nearby burn center.

How screwed up as a society have we become when a slow, painful, septic death is alright because we apparently have better nothings to do?