Wow. Almost a high mortality day for me in the ED. Well, not the ED, but a lonely stretch of the 60 freeway at 0130. I got off work late. Driving home, fast, on a bare stretch of highway. All of a sudden some guy on a motorcycle swerved from the left lanes right in front of me. Christ! Braked, swerved, hit him, lost control, spun, crashed into barrier, came to stop. Stunning. It does not escape my notice that this was day 8 in a row and it was 1:30 in the morning after a 12 hour shift. Did fatigue and overwork contribute to my almost killing another man? Hmmm.... By the grace of God the guy was okay. Poor guy is shaken up, but walking, talking, breathing, perfusing. In the fractions of seconds this crash took to resolve I had clear thoughts--just fragments of thoughts banging stacato like in the moment. I'm going to hit him. Try avoid. No. Hit. Not too bad. Spinning. I'm out of control. I might be killed. I hope not. Will I hit the barrier? Will I be hit by someone else? Is the guy okay? Was I at fault? Hit barrier. Okay, survived that I think, will reassess in a second. That's my airbag. Slowing. Lower risk of serious injury. Less risk of being hit. Stopped. Feel okay. Not hit yet. Okay. Okay. Really okay? I think so. As a resident I had the least possible auto insurance so I think I am probably SOL. But, being alive is something to be thankful for and I am. God knows I have seen what can happen at 80 miles an hour. Downside: Pain, loss of car, inflated insurance premiums (can you blame them?). I have a braod red abrasion to my left forearm (airbag?), a painful abrasion on my left anterior tibia (under the steering column?), and a red painful abrasion to my left neck (seatbelt! Wear'em kids!). Upside: May have to buy a Ford Mustang GT sooner than I thought. Convertible? Also, I did an amazing reduction last night. Soccer player with a nasty tib/fib fracture. His posterior tibia portion was a jagged shard of bone posteriorly displaced and shifted proximally. Ugly! I put this guy down with Propofol (200 mg!), braced mysefl and cranked on his freaky angled leg. Pulled, jerked upward and then flexed forward and...click. Splinted (sugar tong plus long leg) and post redux films were F'ing flawless! Flaw-less! Booo-ya! I wrote "Flawless reduction by ED doc" on the films and told him to take it to the Orthopod in the morning. Sweet! How you like that overpaid bone jockey! Ha, ha, ha! U-561