No Firecrackers For Me
Tonight, we’ll be going to my grandma’s house for our traditional New Year’s Eve dinner.
I am so glad I am no longer a clerk, an intern or a resident, and that my specialty has very few emergencies, which means that I am neither on duty or on call tonight.
Aside from the fact that I will be missing our annual New Year’s dinner if I’m on duty, I also dread the thought of seeing patients coming to the ER with injuries related to firecrackers. Unlike ER consults due to real sickness or maybe vehicular or other accidents, firecracker injuries are, for the most part, self inflicted accidents.
But I guess it’s deeply rooted in the Filipino psyche that these extreme noisemakers are a must to welcome in the New Year.
I would be a hypocrite to say that I do not enjoy the occasional show provided by these “lights and sounds” but I’d rather be a spectator rather be the one to light these. I’d admit that I was more daring when I was younger, but after seeing numerous injuries brought about by these, I started to question that tradition. Of course, nasa huli ang pagsisisi (regrets always come after the fact) so people won’t really stop with the firecrackers unless they or someone they love loses a limb or an eye.
I’m repeating myself, but I’d rather that people don’t light firecrackers on their own and just simply enjoy the numerous fireworks displays around the city. But if you really, really must, please protect yourself as much as possible, even to the point of exaggeration. Wear eye protection (when I was a resident, we had patients whose eyes had to be removed because they got destroyed by firecrackers), use long lighting sticks, run away fast, and don’t use up the remaining powder the next day.
As for me, I’d rather stay indoors with all the windows closed and the aircon running. There’s a fireworks display later and the window in our room just happens to face that direction. We’ll just stay up and enjoy the view.
Stay safe, everyone!