DR. Sydney Hooper, 36
Syracuse, New York
I like to consider myself a sensible man…logical and definitely educated but what I’ve seen today doesn’t make sense…it shouldn’t be happening, there’s no way it could happen other than in a George Romero movie…this doesn’t happen in real life.
My nightmare started…
I was on my way to the “HAPPY HILLS RETIREMENT HOME” in Buffalo…where I volunteer my time to the senior community there. I try to do that as often as I can…at least once a week. I feel seniors are getting the short end of the stick from cuts in their health care to their Social Security income, which they already had it tough for years now; all in the name of preserving America’s way of living comfortably…I ask, which part of America and which Americans are benefiting from taking away from the meek.
Sorry, I digressed but I feel strongly on how we treat our elderly…we say we care but we, as a society, ignore them and many are considered as a nuisance to their own families. I actually find it ironic that the beginning of the end of humanity and civilization started with a senior citizen. Perhaps it’s God’s way of granting revenge to the elderly on humanity, who gave them the shaft…yes I know I’m being very cynical but it does say in the bible; “The meek shall inherit the earth.”
Ok, I’ll get of my senior soapbox now…where was I? Oh yes…
I was on my way to the HAPPY HILLS RETIREMENT HOME when I get a call from a nurse at ST. Joseph’S Hospital, where I’m a resident physician. She says that I am needed at the hospital stat. Apparently there was some kind of accident on the Amtrak Platform at the Regional Transportation Center and to add salt to the wounds, a small riot ensued by several commuters…why people react in that way, I’ll never understand but unfortunately I honestly believe we are reverting back to our primeval state of mind…our animalistic urge to cause harm to one another and apparently that’s exactly what happened on that platform because from what the nurse said; there were several injured as well as a few death.
“God Bless America”
After I called the HAPPY HILLS RETIREMENT HOME; I make my way to the hospital where I see 4 ambulances parked in front of the emergency doors and with nurses along with the paramedics helping the incoming patients into the ER.
I quickly park my car and make my way up to the hospital. As I approach the ambulances, I notice blood all over the ground…a lot of blood. You would think seeing blood on the ground, in front of the ER would be a normal sight but not this amount of blood…and not seeing someone attending to this, is definitely not the norm…and I knew right then that today would not be a typical day in the “Life of Riley” (That was an old show staring Jackie Gleason)
As I walk in through the ER doors…I’m instantly hit with the thought; it’s a warzone…a complete madhouse in here. Crying and screaming echo through the ER with people on beds and stretchers bleeding from wounds that are so horrific, even for me and I’ve seen a lot of shit that would curl your stomach…it’s bad…really bad in here.
“What the hell am I walking into” I mumble to myself.
I quickly grab a nurse as she walks past me. “Nurse, what’s going on…all this from the platform accident?” I asked. She quickly responds with a bit of controlled anxiety in her tone; “Dr. Hooper…uh, no…no, this is now coming in from all around town.” “Sorry Doctor but I need to go” The nurse says as she pulls away from me.
I watch her run down the hallway and disappear around the corner.
I look back at the mayhem that’s happening in front of me…I pause for a moment, not really sure where to begin but I just knew I had to get in there and before I even realized it; my jacket was off, my sleeves rolled up to my elbows and I was knee high in carnage.
I’m not sure if I could even truly describe what I see but just imagine…men, women and children crying…yelling and moaning from the pain that they are in. There is so much suffering from all around me.
A child…around the age of 7 has his nose chewed off and his left eye is gone. A woman screaming on a gurney, holding in her intestines with her right hand as her other hand hangs on with only skin. A man sitting in a wheelchair with a blood-soaked towel to his ear or where his ear used to be; that man lost his two boys as his mother killed them both and began to eat their bodies…I pray to God that those kids weren’t alive when she started to eat them…what horror…and these stories go on and on.
I know I don’t hold humanity in high regards as a society but I would never wish this on anyone…well, ok…maybe my ex-wife but knowing my luck, she’ll probably out live God.