Would You Refuse Medical Care If You Were Stabbed?

He was stabbed. Just walking down the street, doing a normal, everyday thing. And some guy ran up to him and plunged his knife into the guy’s chest. It was a random act of violence. They didn’t know one another. There was no fight or altercation. It was a random act at a time when this seems commonplace.

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. True, he chose to walk down the street at that moment, but he didn’t do it with any thought that it would yield severe attack.

Someone saw the guy stumbling about and called for an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, the guy refused treatment. They tried to explain the severity of his wound and the need to stop the blood loss. But the guy steadfastly refused.

Why? Because the knife wasn’t made in his country. It was imported from another part of the world.

So the paramedics asked him to just accept a tetanus shot to avoid a secondary problem from having the knife pierce his body. But the guy steadfastly refused.

Why? Because he didn’t want to ward off any sickness caused by the imported knife.

I can almost hear you say, “That makes no sense. What an idiot. So the knife came from another country — why would he risk his life and refuse to ward off any life-threatening health issues because the knife didn’t come from his country?”

Kinda makes me wonder too. So, the knife is a virus. And the tetanus shot is the vaccine that protects the body from getting sick.

Ah. Now it makes sense.

Really? Does it?

Since when do we politicize health issues and try to wrap refusal to protect oneself and the community inside of a patriotic shell?

How does it show love of country if the yield is the threat of disease and continued economic strain?

How is it that some people don’t make that connection?

Because, don’t you get it? The knife is foreign.

Wow.