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Don't Get in the Car if Your Friend Has a Tattoo

A few weeks ago, I realized that I needed to brush up on what actually happens in trauma care, since one of my characters is a pediatric trauma doc.  I started browsing the library catalogue online, and this happened:

Waaay too many books
So now I'm trying to read all of them as fast as I possibly can.  I just finished Catherine Musemeche, MD's Hurt: The Inspiring, Untold Story of Trauma Care.  I learned some things that will be important to my story, but much more interesting are the things that have absolutely no bearing on what I'm working on.

The first part of the book spends some time on car accidents and the early prevention efforts.  Really, everything started with Susan Baker, an epidemiologist, and my new hero.  Susan Baker studied car accidents to figure out the causes.  She tended to focus on external causes, believing that people would still continue to be people.  Instead of trying to change them, she thought that we should change vehicles, policies, and roads to make safer environments and systems.  One of the funniest things she discovered was that people with tattoos were more likely to get in car accidents.  So if your friend has a tattoo, don't get in the car.  If you have a tattoo, don't get in the car.  Heck, let's just all take the bus.  Now if your bus driver has a tattoo . . . 

Also, there really were human crash test dummies, who rode a test sled, called Sonic Wind.  I'm sure that all the volunteers had tattoos.
  
Me and my boo(k)
One of my favorite parts of the book is about Freedom House Ambulance.  1960's Pittsburgh tackled  two problems at the same time: the lack of a paramedic service and the lack of jobs for African Americans.  To quote from the book:
"It was a real treat to be away from crime and other things that were going on in that area," recalled George McCary III, a 1968 graduate of the program.  "To be able to go to work and actually help people . . . that's a big uplift whenever you have people praise something you do."
To me that just gets to the heart of human needs.  People need safe environments, meaningful work, and positive regard.

One of the final chapters of the book focuses on PTSD and mentions a new therapy that seems promising.  Guess what, GUESS what, guess WHAT?  It involves Virtual Reality!  Not just visual and sound connections either.  They even provide smell machines.   So here we are, the second book in a row that mentions VR.

I guess I need to take my alternate ending idea a little more seriously.  I have it written, but I'm still debating over whether making everything in the Culling a VR game devalues the experiences of the characters.

Anyhow, teaser time:
On a roof peak hung the a clock with the words, “Sheffield Wednesday Hillsborough.”  Mystified she turned to Jose, “Where are we?”  
Jose shrugged.
“Not sports fans, huh?” Grady pointed at the building, “It’s a famous soccer arena.  Well, infamous I guess.”
“So I’m guessing something violent happened here that showcases humankind’s indifference towards the suffering of others,” Charlotte surmised, “So far, that’s been the theme.” 

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