You won't believe this

[pathfinder]

I rebuilt the left petcock on my 78E, very little leakage in 24 hours, probably between 3/8-1/2" in clear fuel line. Anyway put it all back together drove it about 20 miles then filled it up and brought it home to sit till the next day. Next morn'n garage smelled of gas, (SWMBO did not care for this fragrance at all) fuel is leaking out of #3 carb into the airbox.
Now comes the funny part (read expensive) I pull the seat then the tank fuel lines at the petcocks right hand first then the left. When I pull the left side, petcock on, I get a stream of fuel at full force. I try to hook the fuel line back up, not happening to slick. My wife is across the street at the neighbors and I yell for her to come and help me NOW. She takes off running I yell again to slow down, she turns into my daughter on her bike and has a wreck with her. They go ass overend. Daughter (8 years old)crawls to mom, mom not moving. Laid out like a dead armadillo on her back. I can't go to help I have my finger over the petcock. 5 plus gallon of gas in the garage with my gas water heater I did not think would be a good idea.
Some neighbors get to her and they are looking at me with blood in there eyes, that I would be so heartless as to just stand there working on my bike and do nothing to help her. I have nothing to plug the leak try again to hook up fuel line, too slippery can't get a grip. Rip the tank of the bike and prop outside the garage. Neighbors still can't figure out why I'm not there. Find short piece of fuel line and a pair of hemostats, install and clamp off the line. Wife is moving by now but not up.
I arrive to the scene of the dreadful accident to find her breathing in shallow gasps. I thought her rib was broke and punctured her lung. She fell on the bike pedal on her left side.
Everybody says call the ambulance so being the kind hearted sole that I am I called them. 3 minutes later they show up (quick huh) and begin to ask all the pertinent question as to what kind of insurance do I have and why would I beat my wife to this degree. We the neighbors and myself explain for the second time what happened, they don't believe it at first but we finally convince them.
They ask if they can strap her to a backboard and put on a neck brace for transport, my wife is moving her head all over the place so everybody knows her neck is not involved. Anyway they strap her down and take to the local hospital where she is then moved to a gurney which promptly collapses.
After about 5 min a nurse comes over and asks me to move away so she can talk to my wife alone. I move away then I overhear my wife telling her what happened. The nurse tells her that I won't hurt her anymore and that she would call security to make sure I didn't. Wife explains for the forth time what happened. Then nurse asks her if this injury has affected her eating habits or menstrual cycle. I am back by now and tell the nurse it only happened 20 minutes ago just how the hell would my wife know if accident affected either of these things. Nurse tells me to go away or she would call security on me she did not like wife beaters.
I will tell you I have never hit a woman in my life but the nurse was coming close.
The nurse finally goes away and we wait for 40 minutes for a doctor to approve removing the collar and unstrapping her from the backboard. Remember there is nothing wrong with her head or neck and the doctor say's that when she was first brought in she complained to her (the doctor) of neck and head pain. My wife tells her she has never seen her nor any other doctor since she has been there. Doctor say's she is hallucinating. I was there the whole time from when wife was wheeled in, she says I must have forgotten. Now she wants to examine me. I think she just wants to strap me down so she can call security.
They finally unstrap her and take to x-ray just to find out she has a bruised rib and they send us home.

My question is should I add in the cost for the ambulance ride, neck collar, backboard, emergency room, x-ray and the quack doctor to the cost of my rebuild?

This happened the night before we evacuated Houston because of Hurricane Rita. We got home from the hospital about 1:30am and up at 6. I went to work and wife is watching the news, panics and decides to pack up the house and move to LA. We leave home at 8:30pm for a 5 hour trip which took us 12 hours because of the traffic out of Houston. Two Ford Explorers packed to the brim with all pictures in the house and everything from the freezers. Son drives one me the other. Wife withering in pain for twelve hours. NOT A FUN TRIP. No trailer so couldn't take the bike that really pissed me off. Of coarse nothing much happened in Houston. It went to LA where we went. Next time I'm staying home. By the way 10 steaks thawed out in LA so my wife decides to leave them for the people still there. I'm still pissed why couldn't we leave em some soup or something?

[81xsproject]

obviously not the case, but anyone in the emergency field will tell you that just cuz she is moving her neck, doesn't mean it isnt broke. Muscles do the moving not bones. This is why they strap you down. If there is spinal damage and you continue to move, this is often how the spinal cord is damaged and people end up paralized. When it comes down to it you never move an injured person if AT ALL possible. Just good info to know.

[John]

Shot at and missed, s#!t at and hit!

You know, it really sucks the way medical people assume right off the bat that you beat your wife. Granted, there are the few s#it heads that do it, but these A holes think every man does it. Now if the shoe was on the other foot, do you think they would accuse her of beating you? NOT A CHANCE! Wives don't hit their husbands. That's it, cut and dried. BULLS#IT! It happens a lot but most men would never admit to being beat by a woman. I hope she recovers soon.
A couple years ago, one of my daughters threw a toy bear that happened to talk, so it needed batteries,at her younger brother, and the battery pack had been pulled out of the bear, so it was dangling and cut his forehead pretty good. What do you think the first question they asked him was? Yeah, that's right...did your daddy do this to you. My wife explained to them and they were still very skeptical. My son was only four at the time, but he also told them the same thing as my wife. They probably asked him two or three more times, and he gave them the same reply. My sister threw a bear at me, he kept telling them. Anyway,glad to hear that y'all made it safely. From what I've seen on tv, sksxs1100's, area, Beaumont/Bridge City took it pretty hard. He has come back yet, so he doesn't know how his property fared. Let's all say a prayer for his family, and eveybody else that was affected by both of these storms.

On the subject of neck braces, I had to wear ine for two days until it was determined that my neck was ok, it was just my lower back that was damaged.

[LoHo]

Hey, if that's your story, you stick to it. Just so you know, most of us throw tools to vent frustration instead of beating our spouses/children.

I'm kidding, of course. What a bizarre series of events. I hope your wife heals okay and that you figure out the petcocks.

[prometheus578]

Hey pathfinder.... Have you stopped beating your wife yet?
No: (means he still beats her)
yes: (means he's stopped, but used to beat her.
Yup.. no way out of that mess no matter what you state.
Thousands of battered women.. I just want one dipped in honey.
What's the first thing a battered woman should do when she returns home from the shelter? The dishes, if she's smart!
Yeah, son broke his arm, and the hospital people kept trying to coerce him and wife to say that I did it. Hard for me to have done it when I was deployed over seas at the time!
Persistant buggers, they are.

It happens a lot but most men would never admit to being beat by a woman.

I've seen this a couple o' times. Bizarre. She was a good 200 pounds over him, and I sure wasn't gonna step between them!


Hope your wife heals and feels better soon.

[Geezer]

Medical people sure can be a bunch of a$$holes. Years ago I bought the old lady (now ex old lady) a Kawie 100 and tried to teach her to ride it. She run it up the side walk with one foot dragging and me running along side (I sure couldn't do that now.) About the time we got to the corner she forgot how to use the brakes and ran into a bus stop bench. The idiots at the emergency room and her friends at work probably still think I beat her and this was early on in the relationship long before I got to the point where I couldn't stand the b**ch.

The truth is that bus stop bench may have brused her up, but it also saved her life. If she had not hit it, she sould have run straight out into busy 30 MPH traffic.

Geezer

[jimboreeno]

Glad she is OK

OK..now that we are on to the war stories. I have 2 dear friends who have been married for 20 years. Believe me if anyone is getting whooped, it is him. Anyway, they are both sitting in their living room, he has a new softball gloved he has just oiled and is smacking a ball into it to break it in. Ball tips the pocket, flies across the room and into her eye. I know, even I don't believe that one... you would have to know them.
Of course, the ER called the cops and He almost did not make it home that night! The assumption is; the man is bigger and more aggressive, if something happens to the woman he must be at fault.

Anyway, hope you are home now with no damage. A few less steaks you can always chalk up to the relief effort!!

[Parr8hed]

Some of you know that I am a charge nurse in an ER, have been working ER since '97. I also worked as a nurse for 2 years in a pediatric ICU in one of the 10 biggest PICU's in the US. I could go on all night about stories of abuse that I have seen. That being said I should say that I NEVER acuse anyone of abuse (even if I think it in my head). For anyone to do that to you is wrong and unprofessional. The best coarse of action that I have found is to always get the patient by themselves for a moment and ask them in a professional manner. It always comes out then, even if it is in their non-verbal communication. I cannot believe that some people had the gall to acuse you right to your face, especially EMS. Their goal should be to get the patient the care she needs. It is a law that we have to notify the police on any abuse cases even if we only SUSPECT that the abuse is taking place, we just let the police take it from there, and continue to treat the patient. Some nurses have the "little man syndrome" and think that they are police.

Speaking of "little man syndrome" In my experience it is totally true, I am big 5"11" 250 pounds, bench over 365 pounds! Never would concider hurting a women, kid, dog, cat etc (well maybe a cat!) but in most of my abuse cases that I have seen it seems to be the little scrawny guys with a chip on their shoulders. Not pointing any fingers, just generalizing.

Oh yeah, 81xsproject, I have had people walk into the ER 2 days after a wreck that have a broken neck and should have probably been dead or on a ventilator so you are totally right on that one!!

Sorry about the long post.

[pathfinder]

Hi guys, there's a little more to the problem of the neck brace. My wife was involved in a bad wreck about 30 years ago. Her skull is chicken wired and pinned back together. The reason she could not stand it any longer was the fear of passing out, she was already dizzy from being on her back with her head strapped down, she can't even sleep on her back or right side. Anyway that said I understand the neck brace being on for transport. We explained to the staff about the prior head injury and requested that it be removed. It took about 45 seconds once the doctor got around to it. Mind you there were 2 doctors that stood around for 30 minutes with a full ER. I know people need a break sometimes or maybe they were off duty but they should not do it in front of patients who have not been treated. I makes everybody pretty antsi when no ones seeing to your problem.

Thanks for the replies

[Bud Manley]

That was a fantastic story. I laughed pretty good. Thanks for making me feel a little better about the gas I now have spilled all over my driveway.
This sounds like the sort of thing that always happens to me.
My ex-Girlfiend got her wisdom teeth removed and as a result of the pulling both her checks were swollen and black and blue. You should have seen the nasty looks I was getting from people. Kind of pissed me off. If I was beating her she'd look a hell of a lot worse than that.

[sermn8ter]

Got one for ya

I was at work one day, and my wife decide to ride the neighbor kids 10 speed bike. Forget that she doesn't know front brake/back brake/any brake about it, she just wants to ride it. We live at top of a long big hill in a mobile home park at the time. Right at the bottom of the hill it takes a little jag to the right, and dirt and sand build up in the dip there. She gets going down the hill, realizes she is approaching the dip/turn at approximately the speed of light, and in a panic grabs the first brake handle she finds, which unfortunately turns out to be the front brake. Bike does an impressive job of stopping on a dime, wife doesn't. She hits pavement face first, almost rips her top lip off, scrapes most of the hide off of her right shoulder and right breast. She tears most of her top off doing so. She grabs her top, grabs the bike, and carries it back up the hill where she goes into the house and calls my mom and sister to come take her to the hospital. They call me at work to say she had been in a bike accident and they were going to take her to the hospital. They don't mention how bad it is. I fly out of work, beat them to the hospital, and am waiting when she comes in with a towel over her head. She looks like hamburger. Finally a doctor gets to see her, and the first thing he wants to know is if I did it. He actually pretty much assumes I did it, just tries to get her to admit it. I step in, threaten to make him look like her if he doesn't shut his mouth and do his job. He pretty much cleaned her off and sent her home. A week later we were back in another hospital where they did plastic surgery to remove gravel and dirt from her wounds. She spent a week in the hospital having dressings put on her wounds and then ripped off again to promote new skin growth. Doctor did a great job and she has minimal scarring now, some 30 years later, but boy did I get heated up when he began to accuse me of doing it rather than treating her. People were looking at her and saying stuff like, "theres that lady that fell out of the car", and "theres that lady that wrecked a motorcycle". Nobody could believe that she wrecked a bicycle, but surely you should have been able to tell that it wasn't inflicted by hand.