Welcome to Blood Week. We put out the call last week for your tales of of blood, violence, gruesome injuries, near-death experiences, mayhem, and blood. Many of you came through with submissions, which we'll be posting throughout the week. If you have a story and/or photos to share, email [email protected], with Blood Week in the subject line.
Dallas sent along a story from a war zone that was certainly painful for a friend of his, but it's also one he and his other Army reservists enjoy telling—and getting a laugh from, as evidenced by the image above, which can be seen in its entirety below (click to enlarge):
I was serving in Afghanistan during the spring of 2009. It was originally a nice, small base with few rules until the active army came in and started making everything gay. Because army reservists are inferior, we were forced into hours and hours of bitch work while the "real soldiers" had more important duties (sitting on their fat asses). Anyway, one day we're slaving away to put up this GP Medium tent (it's very large and takes a long time to set up) for some Lt. Colonel. While we're putting this thing up a huge sandstorm comes out of nowhere. Under some great leadership, we never actually staked down the tent. Before we know it the winds pick up this gigantic tent. Unfortunately, my friend decided to run with the wind, with the tent in full-chase mode. In the middle of a frantic scream the tent crashes into him and throws him into the ground.
As this was happening, a metal rode also hooked onto his belt. The next wind gust lifted the tent off the ground, with my buddy's limp body actually being dragged across sand and rocks for yards. We gave chase, following the large trail of blood for what was probably a good 40 yards before we were able to pull him off the tent. His face was completely smeared in blood, but you couldn't really tell because of all the dust and rocks caked onto his face. It didn't take him long to come to. All in all he needed about a dozen stiches (most of which required sowing part of his eyelid back on). How's that for a war story?
Military doctors no doubt see some terrible things. They also encounter plenty that's outright disgusting. Devin has a story that's quite gross for the poor doctor who had been treating him for a non-combat-related malady:
When I was in the Navy I came down with a severe enough case of pneumonia that I had to get a chest tube. My left lung had completely collapsed and so I got to watch the infection get pumped out of my body. I had no idea what it would look like but I figured it would be a green or white color like most infections you get in cuts. I could not have been more wrong. For the first day, everything that got pumped out of was bloody dead tissue. On the second day the stuff turned into a disgusting mix of something that was yellow, blood and of course, the dead tissue. The worst part was when my doctor took the chest tube out after about a week. He pulled the tube out in one quick movement and following the tube was a stream of thick, bloody yellow tissue that landed on his chin.