Basic HTML Version
POT, ALCOHOL
and
PILL-POPPING
Sorne Shocking
Facts
You
MayNotKnow
by
Oonald O. Schroeder
If
you have a serious accident or health crisis, it matters
greatly what drugs you have used!
1
KNOW
what it is like to
feel the mind and life
ebbi ng away. I once
screamed futilely within
my brain: "Oh, my God!
I'm going to die!"
1 experi enced this tota lly
helpless feeling just before
passing into unconsciousness,
after 16,000 volts of electr icity
hammered and shook my body
like machine-gun blows.
This serious electrocution acci–
dent happened in 1975. 1 was in a
tree trimming branches in my
backyard in Pasadena, Cal ifornia.
While 1 was moving to come
down out of the tree, my pole
slipped out of control and the tip
nicked a high voltage wire in the
alley.
J
was instantly snapped back
and paralyzed by the powerful
hammering jolts. 1 desperately
fought to break my grip on the
pote for what seemed like minutes
(in reality, it was only seconds). 1
couldn't. Gradually my mind and
senses faded away.
1 don' t remember the 20-foot
April 1981
fati. 1 only remember waking up on
the ground with my wife shouting
over me. The tree was aflame. It was
a miracle that 1was alive.
What does the near-fatal acci–
dent have to do with pot, alcohol
and pill-popping? More than I
ever dreamed it would. Let me
tell you why.
Past Drug Use Matters
1 knew 1 was badly hurt as 1 lay
upon the ground, but 1 didn't
realize how much. The palm of
my left hand was badly burned.
My clothes and skin were riddled
wíth burnt holes wherever
branches touched me and elec–
trícity arced through them to
ground out through the sap of the
tree. Paramedics had to cut sorne
of my clothes off to check my
wounds. They administered bot–
tled solutíons to ward off shock.
I was helicoptered to the Uni–
versíty of Southern Californ ia
(USC) Medica! Center burn
ward in Los Angeles. 1 lay
stripped on a carrier with only a
sheet over me in a lone room for
what seemed a long time. My
heart and pulse were being
constantly monitored by machine.
Befare anything else was done
for me, an intern carne in and
asked, " What drugs have you
used in the last 20 years?"
He went down a checklist of
commonly used d rugs-barbitu–
rates, sedatives, tranquilizers, pep
pílls, marijuana, heroin and many
other drugs 1 can't remember. I
had not taken any kind of drug–
besides an occasional alcoholic
drink and sorne novocaine at a
dentist's office- for more than 20
years.
But that was not all. Two more
interns carne in at different times
during that first hour and asked
me the same questions. I didn't
then grasp the significance of so
much concern over a past drug
and medica! record. 1 only won–
dered, " When are they going to
do more for rny injuries?"
1was finally moved toa big room
in the burn ward. Wi th me in the
room were many tragic burn vic–
tims. Some had had cars roll over on
them, or else they were hit by
another vehicle, and the gas tanks
spi lled and caught fire.
Sorne had been cleaning sorne-
39