A smart one?

Intelligence is all relative. I'm pretty darn smart, but compared to Stephen Hawking, I'm a doofus at best. What ought to be common sense to me seems to come very slowly to others. As long as it comes eventually, then not all is lost.

My last shift consisted of 15 patients in 24 hours, all of them blunt trauma victims (as opposed to the more glamourous penetrating victims - gunshots, stabbings, impalings, etc). When the weather is nice, the motorcycles come out, and that day was particularly warm and sunny. One of the patients was a 46 year old motorcyclist who hit a patch of gravel and lost control of his bike. He slid on the ground for 10-20 meters until he finally came to a stop in the middle of the road, lucky that he wasn't run over by a car. Fortunately nothing was seriously injured except for extensive road rash on his chest, back, arms, and legs. That was the one day, coincidentally, that he wasn't wearing his leather jacket, or so he claimed. "I swear, I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt. I just forgot today!" Uh huh. Sure.

Unfortunately he had just finished recovering from back surgery, and this was going to set him back several months. He knew it, too. I was giving him instructions on how to care for his road rash, including daily cleansings with soap and water.

"Why, so when it hurts like hell I can remind myself what a dumbass I am?"

I just looked at him with a hopeful expression. "Yeah, I'm giving up the bike. It was stupid. The whole thing was stupid."

Giving up the motorcycle is smart. But realising how dangerous they are BEFORE you tear up 10% of your skin is even smarter. Smart is all relative.