VR in the ER (a cold future?)

This picture starts the story.. It's a picture I took on my phone and sent to my mom stating "it's about to pour". She responds the DC area is even darker with storms expected as well. "The world is changing you know.. I know you don't watch the news or look at weather reports before you go out, but storms are getting worse" she says.

Seconds later, I fell pellets of rain drops hitting my hand and the tapping of said rain drops on my hooded sweater. "I gotta get to the Walmart before it gets too bad, love you mom"..

"yeah, hurry" she responds.. "love you too son"

Looking at google maps on my phone, the course was plotted for the short 0.06 mile walk. I would have drove BUT my car had a flat.

Less than 50 steps in, and...

"arrgghh shit.. FUCK!.. ohhhh... eessssshhhh"

Mr. Flip Flops (me).. ran my right pinky toe into something on the sidewalk (No that's not why I went to the ER, but if you've ever stumped your pinky toe into something, it might as well be).

I looked down and felt a sigh of relief and gave thanks to the universe that the stub just missed the pinky toe and got in-between the fourth toe and pinky toe, just to the side. Still it was painful. A few shorts ohhs and ahhs... a rub of my sheen, ankle and foot and a couple air kicks and I was back semi manly strutting.

A few splashes of steps later, I could see the water was red coming from my foot.

Dammit, I'm bleeding, I thought to myself... "change is coming".

Since my young days in Sierra Leone, I've always thought an unexpected cut on my pinky finger or toe meant the sign of change to come.

It started with a dream when I was 10 years old. In the dream I cut my pinky finger, when I woke up.. the same pinky finger was actually cut and bleeding right on the corner, just under the cuticle. I told one of my classmates about it and he said he'd go ask one of the medicine men in his village what the dream meant.

The next day at school, he told me the dream meant I was coming to America. I thought nothing of it, maybe me telling my school friends my mom was in the states at the time and how much I missed her, made him tell me that as the answer. A few short months later... I came to America as the medicine man predicted.

Since then, the correlation of a pinky unexpectedly bleeding and change to come has seemed true... an expected cut appears... some change in my life follows.

Maybe this is a cosmic secret I shouldn't reveal, an oath between the causers of time and effect I should keep inside, but it may take away from this story if I leave out such a magical reference.

Back to my walk...

usually my walks are that of captain oblivious. Step after step in thought of something un-present to my surroundings. A mindful of other things in wonder, could be as internally optic as the wonder of breath, the amazement of Allah's creations... the epic beauty of trees, plants and their oh so perfect modes of color. The contemplation of a perfectly placed sun, just right not to scorch us or ice us cold.

Sometimes in thought of my latest startup, features to add, bugs to fix. The many "how do I's" that come with marketing. What other hosting services I haven't used, incase I need to move servers to save on hosting costs.

This time it was the taste of mac & cheese, honey beans, bread, butter, tomatoes, banana's and avocado that awaited me at the Walmart. Don't judge me... I was starving and the how do I get people to use this dam nft platform I built is a problem I've yet to solve.

My budget was $18 and my invention of fruit sandwiches and or a small $0.97 mac & cheese and or a small $0.97 honey beens has been my quiet pleasure lately.

The rain poured, my ears heard the splattering tires of cars few and in-between. Across the street one jogger seized the rainy moment to live a little, my path ahead on the sidewalk was clear, to my left bushes behind the fence of a community, to my right the darkness of a rain soaked road.

A few more steps I was in front of the gates to that community, then suddenly the corner of my right eye glimpsed a light... a specific light, the right headlight of a car.. before I could wonder why it was so close..

"WHAT THE..."

I saw the bumper of the car hit my right leg, I felt myself flipping on to the car.. my auto pilot body, winged out my right elbow... bracing for a land on the hood.. my elbow couldn't sustain and again my auto pilot body, titled to the shoulder hoping that would save the fall... I felt a hard land on the hood of the car, 1st the right shoulder... "aarrggghhh" a sharpe pain shook me to realization of what is happening.. my shoulder took all it could.. the thump of my head completed my land on the hood of the car.

"did I just get hit by a car?" my mind realized and thought that at the same time..

a simultaneous 1st time thought and realization it has never had.

The driver of the car finally realized he hit something and slammed on the breaks... in immediate reverse, my body starts to roll in the opposite direction.

For some reason, a vivid moment in thought interrupted the "did I just get hit by a car" realized thought...

"wow.. movies are right" the thought said..

as I flung off the car, my body in horizontal somersault, legs in awkward whip.. body in uncontrollable motion trying to figure out how to brace for the land on the ground... it came up with nothing to regain control and my head was at the mercy of the pavement.

"arrgghhhh"

There's another you, hidden inside. It's a you that appears only during the reaction of adrenaline.

The 1st thing I saw laying on the ground was the closed gate to the apartment complex... the next thing was a wonder... why the fuck is this guy going that fast when he'd have to stop 3 seconds later to open the gates.

Then I thought... pinky toe!

Car door opens... a college age Asian guy steps out.. "holy shit are you okay, I didn't see you?"

"DUDE... WHAT THE FUCK..." between the "agggghhss" and whatever shouts I could get out".. "WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A RUSH? THE GATES NOT EVEN OPEN" is the only sentence I could remember shouting at the kid while laying on the ground in pain.

"there was a car right behind me" he said.. explaining his rush to make the left turn to catch the green light into the drive way... "are you okay?" he asked again..

"NO I"M NOT FUCKING OKAY" I returned... "agghhhh, my shoulder".. I get myself up and my 45 year old body felt it's limitations. The rain didn't let up... the pours came down harder, fitting to the drama of the moment.

My hand lifted to the pain I felt above my left eye.. "no blood" I thought to myself as I checked my hand... internally I realized my turban helped protect that bump and thought thank goodness.

"mom, come to the gate".. I look up and the kid is on his phone... "come to the gate.. I just hit someone" he had to re-explain... "come to the gate"

lets pause...

At this moment, I start gathering some thoughts... my body is in pain. 1st lets get a picture of the license plate my calm mind states.

"i'm going to need your insurance info"... I say to the kid

"yes sure, of course..."

The rain drops on the screen of my phone makes it difficult to get the swipe actions going... "load this camera before this kid pulls off" I start begging the phone.

"my laptop better not be cracked" I said out loud.. for some reason, his demeanor changed, when he saw be pull out my mac book.

"do you need an ambulance?" he asks...

"yes," I reply and he gets on the phone with the police...

Then comes Tiger mom, 1st... of course.. she's in puzzle as to why he asked her come to the gate. He points at me sitting on the curb "i hit that guy"

not to stereotype.. but I've been in enough Asian stores to recognize the look she gave me. It was a look that immediately put my status as far below hers. I'm a dark guy in a hoodie, flip flops, back pack... whatever subconscious assumptions came to her mind, it wasn't tech entrepreneur.

"well there are cameras you know".. she responds... and she gets on her phone to call the cops.

I sat on the curb for some time, rain pounding while the two of them got in the car and got their story together. A few mins later, she pops out the car and says they are leaving the cops will come to her home.

Now I'm furious... my body finds additional adrenaline to start chasing after the car... furiously pissed, I get on the phone and start yelling into the dispatch that these motherfuckers are leaving the scene.

While talking the ambulance pulls up, I flag them down... but again that dark guy in the hoodie thing has them peeking through the window wondering. I wave repeatedly and the ambulance door opens. A few seconds later the gates to the complex opens and here comes Tiger mom and her son... NO CAR. She rushes to try and explain... and quickly I let her know.. she wasn't there, she should shut the fuck up.

It seemed at that moment, she counted the articulate words and unabashed confidence to know I'm not at the status she placed me.

1st Ambulance medic:

The 1st medic interrupted me asking the mother and son why they hid the car.

"I DON"T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT.. ITS RAINING.. I'M NOT GOING TO STAND OUT HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS!"

Tiger mom tries to tell the medic the story... I interrupt her... letting her know she wasn't there, her son should speak for himself.

"I DON"T CARE".. again states the medic. He directs me to the other medic in the ambulance to get checked out. The other medic invites me in, and offers a place for me to sit down.

"what's your name?" the 2nd medic starts the process.

Ambulance door opens, 1st medic comes in... "he said, he clipped him"..

"WHAT?" I exclaimed... "it wasn't a clip.. I landed on the hood of the freaking car"...

"well they said he clipped you?"..

I paused and gave my mind a moment to catch up with my visual understanding of this guy. Light bags under his eyes, either Indian or some variety of middle eastern.. American, no accent.. likely one of those guys who's seen so much in his line of work he's lost all emotion.

"where's the car?" I asked, "who's more likely to lie in this situation?" I asked...

"I DON'T CARE" he responds again..

"bro, you are in an ambulance, you are suppose to care", I reminded.. him. "I'll just talk to this brother over here instead" I said, pointing to the 2nd medic.

Mentally, I understood.. 1st I have to move past their subconscious familiarity of dark skin in a hoody. As in all my past dealings in this situation, eventually they all say to themselves.. "he talks well, he is intelligent"... I'll answer a few questions in clam and he'll come to that understanding. And he did, when he saw "san francisco" on my ID and ask why I came to his part of town. "I'm a techie, all the tech companies are moving here" I responded.

Whatever the 1st medic was doing, was interrupted, when he heard.. "I'm a techie".. and his demeanor and approach altered.

Stacy:

Stacy is the name of the 2nd medic, American black.. works dual shift as a fire fighter and medic. Seeing I was in pain with every bump on the road the 1st medic refused to pace for... he banged on the window to let him know to slow down on the bumps.

He kept me in conversation, bragged about the fantastic hospital I was being taken to. "it's the best in the city" he explained, "They'll take care of you"... "sorry this is your experience of this city, lots of bad drivers here".

when we got to the hospital he continued.. "the women here are beautiful, the other guy, doesn't take vacations, even on his days off, he'll just come here and sit in the waiting room"..

"is he writing a book?" I asked,

"no that's just want he does... he'll read the newspaper, drink coffee and just watch"

"on his days off?" I injected,

"yeah... on his days off" he responded...

"that's not healthy, no wonder he doesn't care" I said

The banter continued for a while before I was handed off to the hospital staff. I thanked him for his compassion and good nature and asked my brain to remember his name.

Until him, I was in a disbelief of humanity. He helped me get past the stain of the memory of a young man and his mother fleeing the scene after hitting a human being, then hiding the car.

He was right about the hospital, the wait for my care wasn't long. Everyone was helpful and I could see why he said it's the best hospital in town.

The process of the ER experience however can put patients against the good people in their care. After 15 hours there, I wanted to leave and it's very likely those in my care wanted me to just leave as well. I was asking about processes that's out of their control.

I was starving, keep in mind this story started with my belly wanting to process some nourishment. The best my nurse could do for me was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cranberry juice from pediatrics.

Pain killing drips and heat packs was all she could offer. That couldn't do anything about the screams in pain from other patients, the repeated squeaks, beeps and churns from various machines, the hours long wait for test results and the returns of new pains once the drips wore off.

Between dozing off and the awaken disbelief that I had just gotten hit by a car. I had extra time to contemplate the story of the young man who hit me.

His youth and "modern" society living, is clearly different from his mothers. He checked his mother and told her it was his fault, although she clearly wanted him to not take responsibility. He told the cops it was his fault, although she clearly wanted him to not say that. He hesitantly pulled off, but with his mothers motivation, he did.

He is not of her generation or mentality and this moment of clear definition of who his mother is, will live with him the rest of his life.

In race, he hit a black guy and his mother would have left me to die on the side of the road given the opportunity. Not once did she ask, "are you okay?", like he did.

Now here's the flip side. My mother is NOTHING like that. In fact, she'd would be the one to call the cops and tell them I hit someone. She would invite the person I hit into her home, give him a blanket, make sure his okay (IF NEEDED). Not saying that what the young man's mother should have done, but that what my mother would have done.. IF NEEDED.

They two of them sat comfortably dry in the car while I was in the pouring rain, in pain.

You all live right there, you hit me trying to enter your apartment complex, you can go get me a blanket, an umbrella, a cup of tea. Perform a gesture to activate your own humanity.

Oddly, minus her bitch go to hell cold nature.

I marvel at the fact she would help her son commit a crime of that magnitude. The future she aimed to protect is more easily destroyed by her actions. That kid would be half way to China by now, IF NEEDED as far as she is concern. Her generation wouldn't understand that his take responsibility instinct did more to protect his future than their cold ways.

When I wasn't not reflecting on the young man's new complex understanding of his life, I thought about way to improve the ER experience. Zuckerberg recently shared a picture of him in the ER (i'm assuming)... he's lying in a hospital bed from a leg injury. I wondered how Mr. Metaverse missed a golden opportunity to bring VR into his ER experience.

While nothing is better than having your wife and family by your side as he did, for many patients it is a solo experience (some until family gets there). It's unrealistic and time inefficient to request a rebuild/redesign of hospitals, the fastest and easiest fix are VR headsets. True, any patient could bring along their own VR headset, but no one plans a trip to the ER. Maybe with a scheduled surgery, one can prep and bring one along.

The last patient.

The last patient I saw, was an older man who was ushered by an army of nurses, one nurse with both palms on the older man's chest as he laid motionless on the wheeled bed. Using all the energy he could, he tried again and again to restart the older man's heart. Black eyed and bruised, likely with the story of a man not expecting die today, or die with more glory than this.

His body tried as best as it could to take in air and all the nurses around him pleaded with him to stay in this realm. They sent him energies of frequency and sound. Their memory for today, can't be his death, none of them wanted that.

And there I was, thinking I shouldn't see this. I should be in my own VR world of perfection, while the reality around me is this.

Am I also... cold?!