If I Can’t Have Her, No One Can!

Yet again a man decides that if a woman wants to leave him, he figures it is better to do her in than let someone else have her. Sigh. Anyway, as an intern, I was at a hospital that was located near a large inlet bay/sound area so we would occasionally get boating accidents and/or drownings.  I was on the trauma service when we were called that two people had been pulled out of the bay were arriving shortly. 

It was the same old story – with a twist.  A young man and woman in their late teens had been driving along having an argument. The woman in the passenger seat told the man that she did not want to see him any more romantically. He evidently became distressed and decided that if she could not be his boyfriend, than no one else would be.  He steered the car off the road and went straight onto a boat launch and went into the bay.  Luckily there were many people nearby who saw the accident (which was fortunately not at very high speed) and ran to the scene.  The feuding couple was pulled from the partially submerged car evidently still arguing!  When they arrived in the ER, they were COVERED with seaweed and smelled horrible, looking sometime like the creature from the Black Lagoon.   By this point they were somewhat hypothermic and had many bruises and abrasions but were still upset at each other – in fact they were giving each other the silent treatment.  The woman laid there on the stretcher with her arms folded, refusing to talk! 

They got cleaned up, rewarmed, and then admitted  where the next day a psych consult was obtained….