Vent: I absolutely HATE stupidity! Not ignorance.....STUPIDITY!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

5-month-old baby sent from the clinic 10 miles away for a respiratory workup. Baby arrived in an infant carrier with a heavy furry blanket over him. Remove that blanket and find Baby resting on top of another one....with the seat's safety straps under that! After eval and treatment, as part of his discharge, I spoke with mom via an interpreter about the carrier and the child safety seat law. First the mom lies and says that she put the blanket under Baby when they got to the hospital. I confronted her on that and she just laughed. When I asked her if she knew what the law was, she was able to recite it. Her brother drove her and Baby to the ER and he tried to excuse it by saying "I'm a very safe driver."

I am so tired of the stupidity, and stupidity is just what it is. Just around Thanksgiving there was an SUV rollover, with a 2-month-old ejected and killed. Two older kids in the car were badly injured, as well as the grandma. The baby's mom was driving down the freeway, Grandma was in the back seat changing baby's diaper, and the two older kids were in seats but improperly restrained.

There is no excuse for this....in this county all medicaid moms who get prenatal care go through a program and get free strollers and corificeats, and they're taught how to use those corificeats.

How many more children have to die before this stops???

Specializes in IMCU/Telemetry.

I have a friend who was in a head on collision at speed. She was so small that she was thrown through the windscreen, over the steering wheel.She ended on top of the other car, but other then major bruising and hurt back, ect... she was ok. If she was wearing a seat belt, she would be dead. The front of the car was crushed onto the drivers seat.

My point of this story is to give a reason some people don't wear seat belts. They hear a few story's like this one (I'm sure we all heard at least one) and think, "I'm safer without the belt." They tend to forget that these story's are few and far between. They don't want to hear about the large majority of times that the people are killed.Or that the people who wore the belts survived.

I'm all for the police handing out tickets for this. In Jersey it is a class one offence (I think that's the term) which means you can be pulled over for that reason alone.

A new motto could be

Give a Ticket. Save a Stupid Person.

There are several people in my area who still don't go with the corificeat laws. I'm not afraid of my driving, but I'm definitely afraid of who else may be on the road!!...Even people who aren't even "old" do not follow the laws. I never remember sitting in a corificeat (i am 19). My grandmother held me in her arms on the way home from the hospital and my parents STILL (even with all the corificeat laws being clearly enforced right now) don't think corificeats are really a necessity, just an option.

I hear nurses are supposed to escort parents with infants to their cars and explain/demonstrate proper corificeat installation. I'm not sure how and where that applies (varies by state and/or hospital?). But during my clinical (CNA) I took mother/baby to their vehicle (corificeat was in the car and securely in place), but I can't help but wonder if I was wrong in my action? I never checked hospital policy....

Specializes in Psych, Assertive Community Resource Team.

I completly agree with the law requiring parents to safely secure their children in a vehicle. Any child under 18 in a car should be required.

I don't, however, agree with adult seat belt laws. I think they are just another case of laws overstepping their bounds. Now mind you, I am fanatical about wearing my seat belt and I won't start the car unless everyone with me is buckled up. That said, I also don't believe that the police or any other goverment body has the right to "make" me. If people choose to endanger their own lives in their own vehicle that is their right, they just don't have the right to endanger their children's.

As far as saving stupid people's lives, I'm all for a little Darwinistic thinning of the gene pool. There are far to many of them running around as it is(j\k).

I don't, however, agree with adult seat belt laws. I think they are just another case of laws overstepping their bounds. Now mind you, I am fanatical about wearing my seat belt and I won't start the car unless everyone with me is buckled up. That said, I also don't believe that the police or any other goverment body has the right to "make" me. If people choose to endanger their own lives in their own vehicle that is their right.

I'll remember that the next time I go to the cemetery to visit my brother's grave.

you are all right on this corificeat thing...

take it even further...next time you ship your (infant/toddler) patient to another hospital by ground ambulance, PLEASE ensure the ambulance crew safely uses proper child restraints in the back of the ambulance...

those of us in the ER have seen the medic place the toddler on mom's lap...

speak out and stop THIS stupidity, as it often goes unnoticed, but it really is the same stupidity...

Oh, I've got a good one for you.

I was going down the highway where people often go well over the 100km/hour speed limit. In front of me was a car with a sunroof. How did I know it had a sunroof? Because there was a kid standing there, with his/her head poking out.

Oh, I've got a good one for you.

I was going down the highway where people often go well over the 100km/hour speed limit. In front of me was a car with a sunroof. How did I know it had a sunroof? Because there was a kid standing there, with his/her head poking out.

I've seen that!!! I saw a limo once, with a bunch of prom goers, and a girl popped her head out through the sunroof when the driver turned into a restaurant parking lot!!

Specializes in PERI OPERATIVE.

Actually in Michigan, the law states you CAN take your baby out of the corificeat to nurse while someone is driving. Not saying it's smart, but it's not against the law.

That's sad. In CA you canNOT remove Baby from the seat for any reason while the vehicle is in motion.

I completly agree with the law requiring parents to safely secure their children in a vehicle. Any child under 18 in a car should be required.

I don't, however, agree with adult seat belt laws. I think they are just another case of laws overstepping their bounds. Now mind you, I am fanatical about wearing my seat belt and I won't start the car unless everyone with me is buckled up. That said, I also don't believe that the police or any other goverment body has the right to "make" me. If people choose to endanger their own lives in their own vehicle that is their right, they just don't have the right to endanger their children's.

As far as saving stupid people's lives, I'm all for a little Darwinistic thinning of the gene pool. There are far to many of them running around as it is(j\k).

I am also a avid seatbelt wearer. I don't understand how wearing your seatbelt can be enforced yet, some states do not require motorcyclist to wear helmets.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
I am also a avid seatbelt wearer. I don't understand how wearing your seatbelt can be enforced yet, some states do not require motorcyclist to wear helmets.

Florida is one of them.

I try very hard to stay away from motorcycles, especially if the riders are not wearing helmets. I realize that the riders might have the "right" to splatter their brains all over the pavement, I just would rather they didn't do it in front of my car.

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
Cellphone use in the car is also very stupid. Eating McDonalds food is proven to be damaging to ones health. Didn't you see Supersize Me? These are all risky, stupid activities.

I am all for banning cell phone use in the car. To me, regulation of what people goes too far, because really, as long as one eats an otherwise healthy diet, an occasional splurge at McDonald's can't kill them. One trip in the car without the seatbelt can.

I know you're not the one who mentioned government overstepping its bounds, but I'm going to combine my thoughts about that into this post. If the government can license drivers, require car registration, and maintain the roads (I know they don't always do a great job in this regard, but it is their charge), then IMHO they can always mandate safety requirements within that car.

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