Only an addict would perform surgery on himself.
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“That Throbbing Pain: John Martin Novak, 48, of Buhl, Idaho, said he needed sinus surgery to fix a snoring problem. He decided to do the surgery himself. ‘He described that he stuck two straws up his nose,’ the resulting police report says, ‘and was attempting to break his own nose using a door that he would open rapidly and impact his face.’ Novak reportedly told officers that he had been drinking for a week to get ready for the procedures. Police were brought in after he allegedly threatened his sister with a rifle. Officers called in paramedics, and Novak was hospitalized to bring his blood alcohol level down to safe levels — he was at 0.5 percent, which is getting close to lethal levels — and presumably to repair damage to his face. (RC/Magic Valley Times-News) …The damage to his reputation, however, may be beyond repair.”
Alcoholics experience confabulated thinking and reasoning, which often affects others adversely. This is one instance that affected the addict far more than others, but only initially. Consider the medical costs and who pays them. All of our insurance and tax rates increase because of idiotic medical waste created by the non-thinking of alcohol and other-drug addicts. I’ve estimated that, absent addict-related incidents, overall health care costs would run 25-50% less. The solution, requiring addicts to pay for their own care and fixes when addiction is the true cause of the injury, would do a lot to help addicts think before using and doing awful things, yet again.
By the way, lethal levels for the drug alcohol are much lower than for drugs like heroin. A lethal dose for a heroin addict is 200+ times more than for a non-addict. While alcoholics can get up to a range of .5 to .8 percent blood alcohol level and still be awake, non-alcoholics may be comatose in the .2 to .3 percent range and dead at .35 percent. In that sense, at least, alcohol is by far the more dangerous drug.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2014 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission. If you haven’t already subscribed to his newsletter—the free one at least, or the paid one I get, with more than twice the stories—I highly recommend it: www.ThisIsTrue.com.)