ideal

i have been following the story of the baby that was brutally assaulted recently with more than a little horror. it is disturbing to say the least. those who follow this blog may know that i struggle with the suffering of children. it is not something that i deal with all that well. so i have been dwelling on this story quite a bit.

i thought about what causes someone to try to kill a defenseless little baby? obviously the thought that the perpertrators are mad comes to mind, but that is just too easy a coppout. to be honest i hope it turns out to be the case, but there may be a more sinister reason.

recently in our beautiful land quite a number of fairly highly positioned politicians have publically encouraged the murder of afrikaaners. it would be a misnomer to say it is official anc policy...yet. but it is most definitely not frowned upon by them. now if one is serious about an ideological principle there may be a few unsavoury things required to bring this principle to fruition. we see examples throughout history, the most prominent probably being the genocide of the jews by the nazis. once they had decided the jews needed to be extermionated, ideology drove them forward and outweighed social norms. along with the adults the jewish children were also herded off to execution. the nazis were very serious about what they believed.

i can't help drawing parallels. the perpetrators may well have been drawn up by the rhetoric of their leaders and may even have felt the government would come to their aid if they were indeed caught and brought before justice. they at least have the courage to carry out the conviction of their leaders who simply hide behind the words without following them up with deeds.

lets rather hope they are mad.

it is difficult to cut a head off with a panga

i have decided to break from my series to quickly blog about a recent patient.

i now know it is difficult to cut a head off with a panga. it is not something i wanted to know. it is most assuredly not something i wanted to find out the way i did.

i was called to theater only after she had been put to sleep. the plastic surgeon wanted me to attend to some of her many wounds while he pieced together the face. i don't think i am easily shocked, but i was. she was about 60. she had been attacked in her house by a group of men wielding (and swinging) pangas. she was transfered to our hospital where the plastic surgeon took her to theater. he then called me.

i walked in. the right side of her face had multiple slashes. the angle of attack was slanted downwards. the side of her face had been sliced off in thin slivers like a piece of roast beef. a piece of the mastoid process had been sliced off. the layers lay loose, attached only at the lower neck. i assume these were the first wounds inflicted. she must have fallen forward then. this i know because the next wound was in the posterior aspect of the upper arm. the triceps was completely transected. the humerus itself had a deep gash in it. i suspect the assailant would have had difficulty removing the panga from the humerus, the wound was so deep. by this stage the woman must have been face down...defeated. the next wound was over the right scapula. the scapula was cut right through. there were two separate pieces with all the muscles transected as well. the force mustered to deliver this blow must have been emense.

i quickly realized that an orthopod would be a better bet for the patient than me. we called one. he scrubbed up and went to work as the plastic surgeon pieced together the jigsaw (read panga) puzzle that was her face.

and her crime? she was white. yes, she was simply the victim of a racial hate crime.

i remain in shock.