So I had an interesting experience today...
 

I was out having a "ciggy", and noticed in "real-time" a large branch of a "bread-fruit" tree falling down.

Several people ran over, and gawked through the fence.

"Was a dog or cat hurt?" ask I?

"No, a man!" said they.

I ran around the fence and found a man lying on the ground, surrounded by tree limbs and bread-fruit, and the residences of the property, complaining about a pain in his stomach.

We called an ambulance (often takes many hours here in Barbados), and gave him water, and told him not to move.

He took the water, promised to not try climbing a tree again, and was last seen running off the property with several bread-fruits under his arms...

True story....

That'll teach him to think bread is a fruit. I can see why the branch broke.

[/TROLL]

[QUOTE=TheMawn;365637]That'll teach him to think bread is a fruit. I can see why the branch broke.[/QUOTE]

You need to spend some time outside of "The Great White (Frozen) North".

Breadfruit is a large green product of a particular tree. Very starchy. You generally cook it in an open fire, and then eat it with some butter (if you can afford it).

The man fell about 10 meters out of the tree (along with the branch)...

I felt very bad for him -- he claimed he was stealing the breadfruit because he was hungry. Based on how thin he was, not an unbelievable claim.

Breadfruit is what started the whole [U]Bounty[/U] adventure...

Lol jeez I was kidding. I didn't know breadfruit was a thing until I googled it after reading your story. I hope the man is okay. Trying to relieve hunger is one hell of a way to get hurt.

The amount of stuff that falls out of trees around here is really unfortunate. I'd say my family as a whole manages to recover maybe 75% of the apples that grow in our yards. We recently adopted one of my uncle's trees but for a few years we won't grow any ourselves, but between my aunt, my uncle and my grandfather, there's probably ten healthy trees spitting out apples in October. Apple jelly, apple pastries, apple sauce, etc.. We put more time into actually using them than I'm sure most people have time for.

So... around autumn time you have to pay extra attention to not step in little red piles of crap that were perfectly edible not a week before, while people like the man in your story, would definitely be very happy to take some, are worried the owners would get pissed off. Like I know they would.

If it was my tree and I wasn't using the fruit, I'd be telling him to come back and ask for a ladder next time...

So, you are all talking about that exaggerated big... [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_fruit"]mulberry fruit[/URL]? Looking outside like a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit"]jack fruit[/URL], but much smaller? Growing in an exaggerated big, 26 meter tall, mulberry...bush :w00t: We don't know it...

[QUOTE=chalsall;365629]We called an ambulance (often takes many hours here in Barbados), and gave him water, and told him not to move.[/QUOTE]
Not moving him was certainly the right thing to do, but my limited first aid training for this type of situation also said not to give the patient anything to eat or drink. I believe that this has to do with the possibility that the patient may need an operation. In this case, from your account, it turned out not to be the case.

Any time I've heard of people dying in an operation due to food or drink consumption it's always been a fairly big meal (a cheeseburger, once, less than an hour before).

I would still tend toward giving the man at least one glass of water.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;365651]So... around autumn time you have to pay extra attention to not step in little red piles of crap that were perfectly edible not a week before, while people like the man in your story, would definitely be very happy to take some, are worried the owners would get pissed off. Like I know they would.[/QUOTE]

Not all owners would be pissed off, but yes, indeed, many would. It's actually quite sad; rather than helping each other, there's still much fear and distrust between the "people's" (here, and of course, elsewhere).

While we were as kind as we could be to the "thief", he probably ran off before the ambulance arrived (it never did -- I don't know if it was called off) for fear of being arrested for petty larceny.

The gardener was laughing after the man ran off -- he seemed to be more concerned that he was going to have to "clean up the mess" (the fallen branches, which he will be paid to do) than for the welfare of the hungry man.... :sad:

[QUOTE=Brian-E;365683]Not moving him was certainly the right thing to do, but my limited first aid training for this type of situation also said not to give the patient anything to eat or drink.[/QUOTE]

Excellent point. I will remember that if such a situation occurs in the future. Thanks.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;365695]Any time I've heard of people dying in an operation due to food or drink consumption it's always been a fairly big meal (a cheeseburger, once, less than an hour before).

I would still tend toward giving the man at least one glass of water.[/QUOTE]I believe the concern is primarily about the increased likelihood of vomiting while anaesthetised. While not invariably fatal, the results are inconvenient at the very least.

It has been over 17 years since we worked as an infantry medic, but we think (?) basic first aid has not changed much since then. We specifically did not allow the patient to drink water if they had an abdominal injury. We rarely gave patients water because they rarely asked for it. The only (obvious) case for giving water to the patient was for heat injuries.

This is the (updated) manual that we had to know forwards and backwards: [url]http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/fm4_25x11.pdf[/url]

There were several other manuals covering more specific tasks that we were required to know but this manual covers the basics.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;365708]It has been over 17 years since we worked as an infantry medic...[/QUOTE]

I sincerely bow to you for being able to do that kind of work. :namaste:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;365708]
This is the (updated) manual that we had to know forwards and backwards:[/QUOTE]
Mrs. LaurV, who, beside of being many things :razz: is also a college graduated nurse, may give you a big kiss for this link.

edit: Saved.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;365708]It has been over 17 years since we worked as an infantry medic, but we think (?) basic first aid has not changed much since then. We specifically did not allow the patient to drink water if they had an abdominal injury. We rarely gave patients water because they rarely asked for it. The only (obvious) case for giving water to the patient was for heat injuries.[/QUOTE]

Well I stand corrected. Makes sense for abdominal injuries.

It makes a bit less sense to me as far as anesthetic goes because I would expect a body that needs an extra cup of water to be able to process it reasonably quickly. Even when I'm well hydrated, I can end up on the toilet within an hour of drinking a cup or two of water.

Actual food on the other hand makes total sense.


Sort of on the topic, I might have gotten a bit of a mild flu or some sort of food poisoning on my trip to Mexico over the Christmas break. I slept like crap, and had a couple of liquid #2 encounters with the toilet during the night. Big headache in the morning, and I ended up over the toilet for a third and very final encounter, only coming out the other end. But my stomach was completely empty. Hell, I was hungry enough for breakfast that I was disappointed my body was trying to reject food instead of taking more in.

Long story short, I vomited on a completely empty stomach (no water or anything either) and it was possibly the second-worst unique experience of my life.

Not too sure why I felt the need to share that, but there we go. Maybe some unfortunate sap can relate.

That last post is a hard act to follow, but I'll try:

First of all, I would think that in the tropics, the body's need for water might be more acute than in more temperate areas, so I wouldn't want to deny water to anyone who asked for it. Even in severe situations, such as my 26th birthday in Crete, after a night of drinking Retsina, Ouzo, and Metaxa the night before, water was actually helpful in allowing me to successfully relieve my stomach and feel better. But I can see that an abdominal injury could possibly be a reason to avoid it.

Second of all, thanks for the Army medical manual, Mike! I am finally getting something tangible for all the taxes I have paid in to the military all these years. Like LaurV, I have saved a copy.

Third, the discussion of rotting fruit reminds me of a visit to Mexico for a solar eclipse many years ago with a friend and my sister, when we stopped to take pictures in a small town of some beautiful Bougainvillea trees, and encountered some young people with several bushels of enormous Papayas, [B]much[/B] larger than those we find for sale in the States. They insisted on giving us several, and would not accept payment. As my sister said, it was sort of like when we grow so many tomatoes or zucchinis in the summer, we are just glad to give them away. We have an apple tree that produces a bumper crop every 2 years, and although we make a good amount of cider and applesauce, we would still have fruit rotting on the ground if we didn't invite friends and neighbors to come over and harvest. Here in Eugene, we have several outstanding gardening projects that raise food for the local food bank. Produce sharing can certainly be a significant way of helping the hungry.

[QUOTE=philmoore;365740]We have an apple tree that produces a bumper crop every 2 years,[/QUOTE]A knowledgeable gardener told me that the typical 2-year cycle of apple trees could be evened out by doing two years' worth of pruning just after a "low" year harvest, but none after the following "high" year. It seemed to work on the one we had.

A story about sickness:

We have had severe food poisoning three times over the years, twice requiring hospitalization.

But, one of those "interesting" instances is not the story we are going to share!

When we were little, maybe 10 or 11 years old, we were so poor we couldn't even pay attention. Our diet was composed of inexpensive foods and usually lots of the the same thing. If chicken legs were 19¢ a pound, we had chicken legs for the next month. No matter what you do, there are only so many variations of chicken leg recipes! To this day there are numerous foods that we refuse to eat because we ate them so much as a child. Good meat, like bacon, was a luxury. A thumbnail-sized piece of bacon would be used to grease the pan the eggs were cooked in, to get bacon flavor, and at the end, we fought over the bacon sliver.

There was an apple orchard nearby. They had a deal for $5 where you could pick as many apples as you wanted. So once or twice a year we would bring home a mammoth pile of apples. Apples are like chicken legs, except there are more recipes for them. Nonetheless, it becomes wearisome eating apples all the time.

One visit we noticed that they had a 25¢ deal for "All the Cider You Can Drink". There was a big cooler full of cider and little Dixie cups. We remember asking them what the record was for cider consumed, and the answer was somewhere around 10 or 15 cups.

We drank 37 cups.

Fortunately, the physical toll of our awesome victory did not manifest itself until several hours later, when we were at home.

:sick:

[SIZE="1"]Movie quote: Wat: Uh, betray us, and I will fong you, until your insides are out, your outsides are in, your entrails will become your extrails I will w-rip... all the p... ung. Pain, lots of pain.[/SIZE]

Thanks for sharing.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;365772]

[SIZE=1]Movie quote: Wat: Uh, betray us, and I will fong you, until your insides are out, your outsides are in, your entrails will become your extrails I will w-rip... all the p... ung. Pain, lots of pain.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
Great movie. Sustained a friend's morale through very troubled times. He watched it about 100 times and gave us the video which we treasure.

We thought Kate was way hotter than Jocelyn.

:love:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;365959]We thought Kate was way hotter than Jocelyn.

:love:[/QUOTE]

way hotter? maybe not, but definitely more attractive.

One of my close friends tells a similar story of childhood poverty that was a little more...criminal. they got into a truck driven by their uncle and stopped in a field of corn where upon the kids rushed out into the fields to collect as much corn as possible.

Given the nature of Missouri field corn, which is raised for feed, and the option of several days of eating corn-with-____ he describes a similar experience to the one you are hinting at.

Kate was hotter not only due to her attractiveness but also because she was independent, down-to-earth and stubborn.

:love:

We like how the movie morphs modern music and scenes periodically. And Chaucer's character was amazing. Even the bad guy was sufficiently bad. (Most villains do not impress us, but his snobbish attitude really made us not like him!)

[SIZE="1"]William: Oi sir, what are you doing?
Chaucer: Uh... trudging. You know, trudging?
[pause]
Chaucer: To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.
William: Uhhh... were you robbed?
Chaucer: [laughs] Funny really, yes, but at the same time a huge resounding no. It's more of an... involuntary vow of poverty... really.
[/SIZE]

[QUOTE=philmoore;365740]They insisted on giving us several, and would not accept payment. As my sister said, it was sort of like when we grow so many tomatoes or zucchinis in the summer, we are just glad to give them away.[/QUOTE]

Just to follow up on my breadfruit thief'ing story...

I learnt today that the man came back onto the property, and apologized to the owner for the trouble he had caused. He said that he actually did have to go to the hospital to be treated for several cracked ribs and internal bleeding (but surgery was not required). (While Barbados is backwards in many ways, even the penny-less receive medical attention if needed.)

The owner thanked him for his apology, and gave him several additional breadfruits he had brought down during his fall.

The gardener has agreed to use a tall ladder available to the compound to bring down additional ripe breadfruits every couple of weeks or so, and to make them available for free, since the owner doesn't use these herself.

Nice outcome! :smile:

[QUOTE=chalsall;366312]even the penny-less receive [B]medial[/B] attention if needed..
Nice outcome! :smile:[/QUOTE]
indeed! :P