Snippets 4

Doctor Mc Dougall was Irish and he and his wife took their annual holiday to Ireland in 1980 and decided to tour the west particularly Connemara, which can be quite a remote area in parts. On rounding a bend in the road one day they saw a large American car overturned with a middle aged woman lying in the road, unconscious and bleeding profusely from a gaping wound at the junction of her hair and forehead, stretching from one side of her head to the other. Dr Mc Dougall always carried his bag in the boot so he proceeded to get it and started to stitch the wound and stop the bleeding, which in fact probably saved her life as the bleeding was so severe. While he was doing this another car stopped and the driver asked if he could help, so the doctor told him to get an ambulance as quickly as possible, continuing to put very neat stitches, bringing the wound closed completely. He had just finished this when the lady regained consciousness and sat up putting her hand to her head and asking what had happened. The doctor said, “don’t worry Mum, you have had a car accident and you have been unconscious and as you had a large wound which was bleeding very badly I have put several stitches in and stopped the bleeding”. Putting her hand to the wound and feeling it she said “you did what? You mean you touched my body while I was unconscious without my permission?” He said “if I hadn’t done this you might have died” She replied “this had better be absolutely perfect, if not I will sue you for every penny you have, and now I need your name and address in case I need to do that” As he was doing this the ambulance arrived and the paramedics started to put her into it, and while she was being carried she said” remember, if this is not perfect in every way, scar and visual appearance, you may expect to hear from my solicitor” With this she was driven off clutching the doctor’s address both at home and that of his hotel in Ireland. Fortunately Dr Mc Dougall never heard anything further.