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medpundit |
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Friday, June 11, 2004While hundreds of drunken street brawls take place every weekend across the UK, few of the perpetrators - if any - would want a death on their hands. But one punch is all it takes. ....John Black, a consultant in emergency medicine at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, believes the danger of single-punch deaths is "a huge public health issue". He said: "I think there's a general ignorance about this. ...Mr Black believes that the issue is so serious that a nationwide team of pre-hospital critical care doctors should be set up to back up paramedics called to the scenes of such injuries. He also wants regional centres of neurological expertise set up for victims to be taken to immediately and greater training for new accident and emergency doctors to recognise fatal symptoms - even if the victim is drunk. And they call Americans cowboys. UPDATE: At least one reader thinks this is due to British gun control: I think that the high rate of British pub brawling is probably due to gun control. In America, the thought that one's opponent may very well possess a weapon far more lethal than a fist most likely crosses the mind of all but the most drunken combatants. In Britain, unless one is in a very bad part of town, one can be relatively sure no one has a gun. It's no fun to fight when someone could actually get killed. Look at it like the Cold War, in miniature. Maybe. But do drunken sots really think that clearly? posted by Sydney on 6/11/2004 07:59:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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