Ironic, isn't it? I'm a dental student who pokes needles in people's mouths on a daily basis, but one of my phobia's is giving blood. It's not the needle part - I can handle that. When I was a teenager I was having some blood drawn and watched as they did it (bad idea) and I came really really close to passing out. Things went dim and I got sweaty and they made me lay down for 20 minutes before I could drive home. I can handle other people's blood and don't mind seeing my own blood if there's a good reason for me to be bleeding, like a skateboarding wreck or something legit - but intentionally removing my blood and putting it in a bag just doesn't sit well with me. Time to face my fear.
Why am I doing this today? Yesterday was one of those news days where I found myself glued to the TV all evening. Most of you probably heard about this happening - a commuter train and a freight train collided head on in Chatsworth, which is about 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles. When I first started watching the news coverage, they said that at least 20 people were injured, and 11 of them critically. Now (the next day) the count has risen to 17 dead and 135 injured. During the live coverage there were interviews with witnesses and one of them got a little graphic - I think the network probably wishes it weren't a live feed because she really got into some gory detail. Anyway, one of the networks mentioned the need for blood donations in the L.A. area and I decided that since I didn't really have any other plans for today, we might as well make a day out of it. In fact, just the other day Melissa had mentioned that we should take a trip out to Hollywood, so I planned it all out last night and here we are, about to embark on our own little service-oriented vacation.
Update: (it's evening and we're home now) The current, and likely final count is 25 dead and 135 injured (45 critical). Metrolink has already claimed responsibility saying it was the fault of their engineer and that more details will come forward in the coming days.
While we were driving to L.A. they mentioned on the radio that they were just barely accessing the lower compartment of the first passenger car. Unbelievable! This was 18 hours later. That should give you some idea of the extent of the damage.
There wasn't any media coverage there, but I'm pleased to report that the UCLA blood and platelet center was PACKED! I strolled in around 12:30 but wasn't hooked up to a blood bag until 2:10. While waiting I got to talking with a reserve firefighter who was called in to the scene last night. He told me the news didn't even come close to describing how truly horrific the scene was. He was showing me some pictures on his camera but before we got to the messy ones, my name was called to go give blood.
Anyway, I'm glad we went. We had a really fun day and spent some time walking around Hollywood. Check my wife's blog for the fun report and some family photos.
1 comment:
Hope have more fun in u'r life !
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