Emergency Memories

THERE IS ONE MEMORY that stayed. In time it would have important consequences. It requires thought. For sure.

What is it?

It is not 16 hours of waiting in Emergency, droopy, short of breath, shivery, only the floor to lie on, close by a child in a tantrum, parents ignoring.

It is not a search for an embolus, chest x-ray, leg ultrasound, CAT scan, blood tests.

It is not a line inserted at an elbow that leaks and makes another line necessary for an antibiotic in the small hours of the morning.

It is not a dozen incidents in the Emergency that helps it save lives. It is none of those.

It is the wheelchair! It is made extra broad.

Why? To fit the populace.

Forget the diet programs, suggestions that living habits be changed, that medium wheelchairs fit. As the populace grows bigger, so does its accommodations.

There must be a philosophy here somewhere.