Childhood Stories #3 - Stubbornness Can Kill

It's that time again to share another story from my childhood, centring around my dad who you would know if you read my previous two stories (here and here, is a very quirky guy who always gets himself into funny and weird situations.

This time around, it's not a comedic story per se, it's a story of the time my dad's stubbornness almost got him killed because he refused to see a doctor after hurting himself.

My father is petrified of needles, like panic attack level afraid of needles. He would actually prefer to be given sleeping gas or knocked out with a heavy blow to the head before letting a needle enter his skin.

The story starts with my dad innocently cutting his right finger on a rusty piece of metal, it was a rusty old mower base I am pretty sure (because he is a small engine mechanic). Normally this would be fine, but my dad was probably 20+ years overdue for a tetanus shot.

He put some Betadine antiseptic solution on it and wrapped it in a bandage and never thought anything of it. The next day he was complaining about it hurting, but chalked it up to "just healing" and put more Betadine on it again.

My dad seems to think Betadine fixes everything, as a kid whenever we would hurt ourselves the solution in his eyes was to put some Betadine on it.

The following day things started to get interesting for this seemingly small innocent cut.

A thin red line started to draw itself from the cut on his finger. And over the course of a few hours, it started to move up his arm. He stubbornly didn't think anything of it, and this was before you would Google such things. My dad did love to consult a book he owns (and still owns) called The Doctors Book of Home Remedies.

He woke up about 3 am the next morning in excruciating pain, his finger was sore and he was complaining of pain in his arm which at this stage had become quite warm to touch. Still, he did nothing about it. Eventually, the line had made itself near his shoulder and it was clear to him that he needed to see a doctor.

So, the next morning he made an appointment first thing and the doctor point blank said to him that if he left it for a few more hours, he would have been in a bad situation if the line had continued.

It was an infection spreading, the cut from the rusty piece of metal had caused an infection on his finger and started to spread through the bloodstream. My dad still petrified of needles did everything he could to avoid the doctor giving him an injection or a visit to the hospital to be pumped full of antibiotics.

Somehow he managed to get away with being prescribed some very strong oral antibiotics, but he was close to the cut off for needing a hospital visit and being given intravenous antibiotics if he left it any longer.

To this day my dad is still petrified of needles and doctors, but he hasn't been in a situation where he has required antibiotics for an infection coursing its way through his bloodstream.