• blackstampede@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    I slashed the inside of my thigh open with a pocket knife once. It must have missed the artery by half an inch, maybe, although I didn’t know it at the time. I had, at this point, been hurt so many times that I closed the knife, put down the piece of wood I had been whittling on, and wandered into the house to ask my mom what to do.

    She said “oh my God! Your new pants!”

    And then we duct taped my leg back together because we didn’t have insurance, and we didn’t want to sit in the ER waiting room for the rest of the day.

        • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          When I was in high school, I really, really wanted to play football (egg ball, for the non-Americans.) Went to the camp before starting my freshman year, had a lot of fun, was decently good and by all accounts would have started. Finally got the waiver to bring home, basically “your kid might get hurt and we ain’t paying for shit” and so ended my football career. I actually probably need to make a phone call after this one, because I do remember being told we don’t have insurance and that’s why I couldn’t play, and I do remember being both pretty obstinate that I would not get hurt and this was basically an impossibility (youth, am I right?) and being an asshole because there was probably no bigger injustice in the world.

          Of course, now I know that probably a single trip to the ER for anything would have probably bankrupted my family.

          And you all are robbed because you don’t have me now as a great football start to look up to (just kidding, I was slightly above average in a small town.)

          Anyway, America. 'Tis a stupid place, let’s not go there.

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You can assume it’s about the US. That’s what we do too. 🤣

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          11 months ago

          Pretty sure that’s been the case since about the 50s? You had a good run with that moon thing, but it’s been downhill since then.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          11 months ago

          If a fairly large percentage of your population can’t take their children to the emergency room in an emergency, among them the majority of “essential workers,” you’re not developed.

          It does rather point to the fact that it’s not a matter of ability but will in America.

    • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      The worst I ever cut myself was I cut the side of both middle fingers all the way down to the bone in exactly the same spot 1 week apart.

      I was trying to do some really precise cutting and didn’t have the right kind of knife for that so was holding a regular one like a pencil. And apparently didn’t learn my lesson the first time.

      I still have it and it’s still that sharp. I didn’t feel it at all either time.