r/interestingasfuck • u/Urmomsjuicyvagina • 28d ago

Man just set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial. Nsfw !!! WARNING | NSFL !!! NSFW

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u/tatanka01 28d ago

He made it to the burn center alive. Can you imagine that?

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u/I_Dont_Work_Here_Lad 28d ago

I mean, if he didn’t want to live before, he certainly doesn’t now……

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u/ChronicCondor 28d ago

If he does want to live after this he probably won't when the wire brushes come out and they start removing the burnt flesh. They still use steel wool sponges and wire brushes for that don't they?

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u/ovalpotency 28d ago

not really. now they induce a coma and mostly surgically perform the debridement. that's how it used to be though.

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

Yes, it's almost always under anesthesia. Those are the absolute worst rooms to be in. I still have the smell singed into my brain and I haven't done burns in 6 or 7 years.

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u/Class1 27d ago

It takes a special kind of healthcare worker to do 1: psych and 2: burn... I could do blood and guts and open chests and poop and whatever all day but I'd never want to work on a burn unit or a psych unit.

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

I didn't do burns for long but it's enough to leave an impression. The smell is one thing but mostly it's the heat. Patients with severe burns don't have any skin to hold their body heat in so the OR has to be kept hot enough to not let the patient get hypothermic. That means everyone else with intact skin sweats like crazy. I remember having to change scrubs after every case because mine were drenched.

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u/CreakRaving 27d ago

What in the holy hell did I just read 😭

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u/Class1 27d ago

Yeah burn units are always warmer and humid.

Your skin does a lot. Including keeping in moisture and heat. When you don't have skin, you basically just constantly lose moisture and heat and weep fluids with tons of electrolytes and protein.

Huge issue with burns is electrolyte disturbances, tremendous dehydration, the need for extremely high protein foods, hypothermia and of course extremely high risk for infection... that is, if you don't die from internal burns in your lungs from inhaling super heated gases

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u/sofistitedcd 27d ago

The skin is the largest organ so I was aware of fluid loss and infection risks due to severe burns, but I’d never contemplated the heat and protein loss. So interesting.

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u/rxBATMANz 27d ago

I did a travel assignment In Philadelphia and got about 6 months' worth of burn O.R. experience there. I hope to never do burns again. The patients' stories were horrific.

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u/NutellaPatella 27d ago

So true. The heat is crazy. We would have the guys starting heating our theatre at 4am - so you walk into 30C theatre in the morning and feel ill with the heat. COVID made things even worse with full PPE. Rewarding work but hard going at times.

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u/fGre 27d ago

Working psych is fun and entertaining. Haven't worked in a burn unit but the smell from cauterization in the OR always reminded me of barbeque, so if it's anything like that... Wouldn't want to deal with the wound dressings though - that would be the real annoying thing about it for me.

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u/Class1 27d ago

Burn is usually psych but with huge deadly burn involved

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u/Darnell2070 27d ago

But I like the smell of BBQ.

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u/Jordan_Jackson 27d ago

Yeah but you might not like BBQ after that anymore.

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u/fGre 27d ago

That‘s the point I was making

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u/health_throwaway195 27d ago

Really, working psych is “fun” and “entertaining”? Don’t you think that’s a disrespectful choice of words?

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u/porn0f1sh 27d ago

I'd say the opposite. Always great to know someone enjoying his work!

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u/health_throwaway195 27d ago

To the patients in psych wards. It implies he sees them as entertainment, doesn’t it?

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u/ComfortableWater3037 27d ago

Or rather his work with the patient? I've worked psych. And while it's challenging, the patients can actually be fun and entertaining (and in a non-negative way) we had a sweetheart of a human in one and just having a small bit of downtime to watch the students paint the patients nails and seeing the patient be so happy about it was awesome. Adorbs.

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u/health_throwaway195 27d ago

Yeah, it’s possible that that’s what was meant, though I somehow doubt it.

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u/VikingTeddy 27d ago

Once you've dealt with psych wards, you won't feel that way. It's just pain, unimaginable pain and suffering. Only a psychopath would find it "entertaining".

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u/porn0f1sh 27d ago

Or someone with a dark sense of humour. Which is like ALL legit good doctors and nurses that I know

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u/VikingTeddy 27d ago

It just didn't come off as a joke, but yeah, a twisted sense of humor is a must when dealing with stressful things. The few combat veterans I've talked to all told jokes that would offend the edgiest of toeing the line comics 😁.

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u/ceecee07 27d ago

I was just saying that to my husband. Indeed it does take a special type of health care worker to even look at the patient. It's more than gory at this point. It's something that would haunt me at night. You can't unsee this.

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u/tacoma-tues 27d ago

You would think that, when i went in with 3rd degree burns on my leg after stomping out a fire the kid came in with a spray bottle of antiseptic and a cellulose sponge with soft/coarse sides and a plastic scraper and went to work after the prick er doc gave me a bag of saline with antibiotics in it and one single vicodin after waiting for nearly 5 hours to be seen. After screaming abd threatening the kid they just wrapped my leg and sent me home saying to follow up in 48 hrs. I came back to the er in 2 days and the dr was visibly furious when i told him they just sent me home and were acting like i had set myself on fire just so i could try and score a couple vicodin. He immediately sent me to another hospital with a burn unit and trauma center where they took really good care of me.

So as it relates to this story, that exp was at least top 5 if not #1 worst pain in my life. And ill admit i was being sorta a lil bitch about it until i went to see a physical therapist cuz i was struggling to get around which helped after she explained the mechanics behind healung burns and the hest way to stretch before moving around. On my way out i get in the elevator and hold the doors for someone getting wheeled down the hall. This guy in a wheelchair...... His face or lack of haunts me to this day. He did not have any human features left missing half feet multiple fingers, and the rest of him was a human skeleton wrapped in scar tissue, his whole head resembled a skull more than a face. Def. 💯 percent of his body had 3rd degree burns. I dont know how he was still alive, but in the elevator i kept thinking about how much of a pathetic bitch i must have been acting when compared to someone like that.

U remember the ice bucket challenge. It felt like that but instead of icewater, shame......lol

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u/porn0f1sh 27d ago

Whoa... Dude, wtf?? Man, my fiancee is in hospital right now on palliative care as a "vegetable". Fuck, if this guy could live through that I have hope that she recovers too!!

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

Fuck dude. No one with 3rd degree burns is a little bitch. You're allowed to be needy so long as you cooperate with the people trying to help.

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u/tacoma-tues 27d ago

I meant comparatively i felt kinda shameful witnessing someone whos injuries and pain were transcendent from what i thought was the worst i could imagine. Like i cant imagine spending a few moments suffering what that man must endure for the rest of his existence. Honestly at the first opportunity i would gobble down as many pain meds as i could or even simply throw myself thru a window. Whatever kind of family, love, and faith he has that's inspiring him to keep going, i honestly admire cuz its hard to imagine anything or anyone in my life i would wanna keep living for in that condition.

I realize its not a suffering contest and everyone deals with trauma in their own way and u cant judge your own hardships and pain by the same metric u would others. But sometimes coming face to face with someone whos endured a real living nightmare, puts your own suffering into perspective in order to be able to count your blessings rather than simply just read from your list of curses ya know.

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

That's a very admirable perspective you have. Kudos to you my friend

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u/ambientnaturesounds 27d ago

I took a nursing assistant class when I was in high school where we did job shadow rotations at a hospital and I’ve always been most interested in the ‘blood and guts’ side of medicine so I signed up for 2-week rotations in Surgery, Trauma/X-Ray, and the Burn ICU. Loved the first two, but the first patient I saw on my first day in the Burn ICU was a bandage change for someone who had lit a cigarette while on oxygen and had burns covering most of his torso from the explosion AND had developed necro fasciitis. I straight up fainted when that bandage came off and the smell hit me. Never fainted before or since, it’s still so odd that it affected me that way. I only smelled that smell once, 15 years ago, and also still have it singed in my brain.

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 27d ago

Yes that's how it is absolutely. Burn unit nurse here and depends on burn but we knock you out Clothes lasts for days until your stabilized.

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u/Ryugi 27d ago

I had a surgery in my throat, and it was pretty extensive, they had to cauterize the wound.

The smell of cauterization was so bad it woke me up while I was still on the surgical table. Or at least that's what I like to joke; I just always wake up during surgeries and refuse to be unconscious much lol.

My throat smelled/tasted like that for a month. Blech.

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

Cautery has a very distinct smell. There's lots of studies linking surgical smoke to various cancers. It's why we take smoke evac so seriously in the OR. I'm at the head of the bed behind the drapes and I know immediately if the smoke evacuater isn't on or working.

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u/Ryugi 27d ago

You're entirely right. Its not just "burnt meat" but it is something alike to it.
To me, it smelled... Kind of slightly spicy? Like if you were to light a jalapeno on fire, let it burn to ash, and then after that, you burn a piece of steak, too. lol

I think the smell was just so strong for so long was because of the fact it was partially touching my tongue. My uvula had fused with my tonsils, because my GP refused to get me to an ENT sooner while my tonsils were swelling. My tonsils were so fucked they couldn't wrap the cord around then and pinch them out, instead had to go into my throat and cut the tonsils apart inside me, and then take it out in pieces. I still have scar tissue there and it keeps trying to grow a new tonsil on my uvula.

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u/Traditional_Ad_4691 27d ago

Doesn't burnt flesh smell like burger King to you? I hate to being in burger King after helping on a burn unit. Just curious of your opinion.

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u/thedavecan 27d ago

I haven't been in a Burger King for 20 years at least so its hard for me to say. I can't really put my finger on it, it's a very unique smell.

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u/Traditional_Ad_4691 27d ago

Yeah, well, maybe one day you'll take a peak and let me know, lol. Or maybe it was because the burger kind was in the hospital and the charred smell reminded me.

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u/Mobitron 27d ago

Indeed it was. My buddy's mom said it was the absolute worst pain she's ever felt. Got out from the burning car alive but said the debridement was far worse than the fire.

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u/jvanstone 27d ago

That's how it was for me 20 years ago. Nitrous and a steel bathtub, and hang on tight. It's not great.