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“Meat Crayon”: 57 Things Medical Workers Won’t Do Because They Know Exactly How Bad Things Can Get
Everything we do comes with risks, even the most boring things. Case in point: I take an odd sense of pride in the time I ended up in the ER as a teenager with a broken wrist (okay, a greenstick fracture, but that’s way less dramatic). You’d think I earned it doing something cool, like skateboarding or climbing a tree. Nope. I was doing my homework when I stood up, slipped on one of those plastic document sleeves (yes, I’m that old), and went down.
Luckily, my wipeout ended with only a cast on my arm and a (not-so-cool) story to tell. But not every activity gets off quite so easily—some can have way more serious, even fatal, consequences. So when medical professionals were asked about the things they’d never do themselves based on the injuries they’ve seen, they had plenty of answers. Granted, most of them are considerably more exciting—and a whole lot riskier—than completing a homework assignment, and some are things most of us might already consider common sense to avoid, or at least approach with caution. But a few of these might genuinely surprise you.
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#1
I don’t have to be a doctor to know caving, underwater or otherwise (but especially underwater) is right out!
dizzystar:
To be fair, EMTs and doctors aren't involved in these situations. That's straight to the morgue.
BeesEelsAndPups 7 hours ago
That's not true. It's not straight to the morgue. Usually the bodies are just left in place. No sense risking the lives of others to fetch a corpse.
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#2
Neurosurgeon here. ATVs. Yes they look fun as hell, but people don’t take them seriously. I have seen some horrific traumas from people casually doing 40mph who rolled over without a helmet. Just the other day there was a 22 *month* old head trauma because mom and dad thought it’d be fun to just hold on to her while they were riding.
Motorcycles are bad, but I feel like people at least understand the risks (even if they choose to ignore them). I think ATVs are seen as glorified bumper cars.
Fungus John 19 hours ago (edited)
i rode an ATV one time when I was about 16. I instantly thought to myself "wow, this things pretty dangerous"
#3
ENT doc. E-scooters, especially when people are drunk. I've seen some very bad injuries.
Weird_Bluebird_3293:
ER nurse.
Those e-bikes and E-scooters.
WEAR A HELMET!!!
Where I live literally nobody wears a helmet when using these stupid things. (Nobody wears helmets. I see people on actual motorcycles buzzing around no helmet like they think their skull is made of iron.)
We had an 18 year old girl fall off an e-scooter and hit her head on a curb. She was conscious on the scene, deteriorating in the ambulance, [deceased] by the time she arrived at the hospital. And no, it did not take an inordinate amount of time for her to get to the hospital. Less than 10 minutes.
Massive brain bleed. Because she had no helmet.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 18 hours ago
I was on my way home from the dentist earlier today and on the other side of the street, I saw a ton of cop cars and cop motorcycles, and a huge section of the street was taped off with caution tape. I glanced over as I drove by and saw an e-bike laying in the middle of the street, with debris and pieces everywhere. It looked like something truly bad had happened. No victim in sight, but they may have been taken off by ambulance already. I don't know what happened, but I live in Southern California and we are a hugely car-oriented state. We don't really have "small" roads in my city - they're all big, busy 3 or 4-lane streets (both directions.) Idiots on e-bikes and e-scooters rarely stand a chance.
#5
Riding in the passenger seat with your feet up on the dash. If you get into an accident, your femurs will relocate to your pelvis and you DO NOT want that.
BookFanatic 8 hours ago
I took a road trip from Chicago to Nashville (round trip abt 942 mile or 1516 km) last week and remembered seeing this on previous BP articles. Immediately told my passenger to put her feet down.
#6
My dad is a coroner and family doc. I'm not allowed on motorcycles, ATVs, trampolines, and mopeds. No jumping or parachute-based activities, either. If a vehicle doesn’t have a roof, then I wear a helmet.
I'm in my 30s and still abide by this lol. You can only hear the words "meat crayon" so many times before you're totally turned off from certain activities.
#7
Biking without a helmet!
I don't care if they don't wear them in Amsterdam. Brain extruded through a skull fracture is not pretty. Decades of emotional instability after a bad TBI is not pretty.
#8
Diving into bodies of water.
Lots of young healthy individuals end up with spinal cord injuries from going head-first into shallow water. Always make sure you know how deep it is before you dive, or just don’t risk it.
#9
DO NOT try to remove matting from your pet with scissors. As mats grow, they tighten and pull skin up into the mat. people think they are just cutting through the mat and end up taking out a huge chunk of skin.
Source: former urgent care vet assistant, now groomer.
Becky Samuel 19 hours ago
There is a technique to removing mats. If you want to learn, most groomers will book a session to teach you how to groom your pet correctly and to safely de-mat. Rabbits require extreme care, as their skin is much thinner than a dog or a cat, so they can suffer some horrific injuries from people who mean well but don't realise the difference.
#10
A lot of the big ones have been covered already so I'll just chime in with one of my own: horseback riding or owning a horse. I've seen people with broken backs from getting bucked off. I've seen people get bit and thrown. I've seen people get kicked in the head, get a skull fracture and end up in ICU. They are beautiful animals but extremely powerful. People underestimate the damage they can do.
#11
Optometrist here. Wouldn’t go anywhere near boxing. Retinal detachment, traumatic cataract, broken orbital bones, corneal abrasions, subconjunctival hemorrhages (burst blood vessels on the white of the eye), plus more. No thank you.
#12
My son’s orthopedic surgeon said skateboarding is funding his retirement.
#13
Tree trimming yourself. No go!
IBJON:
Yep. A guy I work with was trimming a tree and didn't realize how much tension a branch was under. It snapped halfway through cutting it and smacked in the side of the head hard enough to cause his eye to rupture and shattered his eye socket. He lived, but it [messed] him up real good.
Maggie Fulton 4 hours ago
Recently in the news a professional tree trimmer was k I l l e d when trimming a palm tree. Very dangerous.
#14
I sold my motorcycle when my first child was born.
I don’t let my kids pet unknown dogs, even if they are “nice.”
No young kids outside while operating riding lawnmowers/snowblowers.
Hire a lifeguard for the pool party - most of the pediatric drownings I’ve seen happened while people were home/distracted by hosting friends/family.
#15
Peds ICU nurse here! I have a few oddly specific fears-pencils and toothbrushes-please don’t walk around with them in your hand. Or jump on your bed.
I agree on the ATVs. My kids have go-karts with full roll cages and they wear a helmet with them and harness restraints. I don’t care if it’s too hot. All gear. All the time.
Never ever go swimming by yourself.
ALSO-vaccinate. Babies d*e every single year from pertussis. Until you have seen that-I don’t want to hear about your anti-vaccine b******t. Watching a Momma wail and beg for God to save her baby from a completely preventable disease will haunt your dreams.
nottheactualphoto 18 hours ago
If we want to speak in the Momma code: "God sent you a vaccine, and you decided to refuse it."
#16
If you're ever doing work at your house and think to yourself, "maybe I should hire an electrician for this" you should just hire the electrician.
#17
My orthopedic surgeon says he doesn’t have to worry about advertising because cheerleaders keep referring each other to him. Which is exactly how I found him.
BaltimorePropofol:
Cheerleaders, especially the flyers. Physical injury is one thing. But concussion and traumatic brain injury? I cannot stress this enough. What you cannot see can be more dangerous than an actual injury.
#18
Ophthalmologist here. Never do any kind of metal grinding. The number of metallic foreign bodies I've pulled out of people's eyes, even when they were wearing safety goggles.
And fireworks. Never go anywhere near non-professional ones.
Heffalump 16 hours ago (edited)
Safety goggles are known not to be enough because particles can fly over them, That is why the person in the picture is wearing a face shield, which is the recommended PPE. I would have expected a doctor who has treated these injuries to know that grinding can be done safely and be able to advise their patients as to the right PPE to prevent a repeat injury, because grinding does in fact have to be done, and so it will.
#19
Never let children ride on lap while mowing grass. 40 years later I vividly remember father carrying his daughter and a bucket. Her foot was in bucket hanging onto her leg by a ligament. I don’t know who was more traumatized. He said she loved riding with him and some how she slipped.
#20
My wife is an ER nurse vet of about 12 years in a really busy ED. She would never allow me to own a motorcycle.
Lost-Boysenberry-302:
Motorcycles for adults. Dirt/motor biking for kids. We have a fancy phrase of “injuries incompatible with life” applied to many motorcycle accident victims. Often have not just limbs missing, but entire body cavities.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 17 hours ago
Two years ago a motorcyclist was struck and kílled directly outside of my family's small business office. An SUV made an ill-timed left turn while the motorcyclist was driving down the street. The motorcyclist was following all traffic laws, had the right of way, was not speeding, and was wearing a helmet and full bike leathers. None of that mattered. He was kílled instantly. My sister ran out of the office to give CPR, but he was already gone. The whole thing was caught on our outside security cams and I had to watch it while I was copying it for the police. It was awful. Literally over in two seconds. I know a lot of motorcyclists are very passionate about their cycles, and many may make it through their whole lives without having an accident, but cripes. The guy I saw kílled was only 27 years old. I met his family. They were devastated. It just doesn't seem worth it, especially if you have family/kids.
#21
My EMT friends told me enough about the base jumping accidents they responded to that you will never get me to test gravity like that.
#22
Paramedic here. Smoking or drinking in excess. The outcomes are gross, the prognosis grim, the journey seems. . . painful.
StarCrossedFriday 4 hours ago
Drinking in excess I get, but smoking in excess? Am I just misinterpreting the 'excess' here?
#23
Downhill mountain biking - some of the craziest injuries.
I do ski but very carefully. Every time I pick up too much speed, a montage of all the gruesome ski injuries I’ve seen starts playing in my head….
Fungus John 19 hours ago
I've been getting a lot of mountain biking videos in my feed for some reason. Just watched one where a dude went down a mountain that would have taken the pilgrims months to traverse in 6 minutes
#24
My pediatrician neighbor told me his rules for his kids were
1) no motorcycles
2) no trampolines
3) if you go to a house and the other kid tells there is a gun in the house, get out and come home. they may have had a code word for a phone call on that one.
#25
Always wear protective gear. Whether that be helmets, seat belts, or whatever. People invent these things for a reason.
Aimee Elizabeth 17 hours ago
A 17 year old ran a stop sign at 35 mph, totaled my car, cracked my sternum, and gave me a concussion. The cop on the scene said it was lucky i was wearing my seatbelt. Dude, that's not luck. That's the fact that i haven't forgotten to put on my seatbelt in literal decades
#26
Giving up on my body in my geriatric years. Stay active. The cycle of hospital-home-rehab-hospital kills more than any other hobby here.
nottheactualphoto 18 hours ago
My dad went several rounds of that. And he was responsible about staying as active as possible.
#27
Psych and detox Nurse. No hard d***s. Not even once. And be careful with alcohol.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 17 hours ago
With the amount of drúgs I did in my mid-to-late-30s during the Really Bad Times, I'm honestly surprised I'm still alive and (as far as I know) not terribly damaged/organs messed up. Been clean for 7 years! I think about backsliding sometimes when things are really bad, but all of the horrible side effects that came with the "finally, the bad thoughts are quiet" high just aren't worth it.
#28
Drinking soda instead of water. Ive taken care of too many people who had every chronic condition under the sun: Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart failure, copd, type 2 diabetes, artery and venous disease, kidney stones, all one person mind you. Theirs a certain type of people like that who will still request pepsi as their onlyyy drink. A soda every once in a while, or maybe once per day, no biggie. But when you literally have every health problem, and your still gonna choose to drink the thing that caused half of the problems, i dont think i can trust you to take care of yourself. I'll take care of these people for days or weeks on end, and every time its "Could you get me a pepsi?" Sometimes ill get to ask first and be like "Can i get you something to drink, like a water?" But then its "A pepsi would be nice right now." And im sitting there like, i know you havent had any actual water to drink since you came in. Its a small thing, but i give out a lot of drinks as a nurse and it bugs me.
BarkingSquirell 3 hours ago
Pop/soda/cola has tasted just vile to me for decades. Don't touch the stuff.
#29
I'm an EMT, and I will never try detoxing by myself. I've had several cardiac arrest calls where the only medical history the patient has is "was an alcoholic getting sober." These people are young, 20s-30s, just trying to get a better life for themselves. And they literally just drop d**d. Please consult your doctor about a healthy taper-off plan before just quitting.
Becky Samuel 19 hours ago
If you're dependent on alcohol, always be honest with hospital staff for just this reason. They will provide a monitored tapered dose of alcohol in a drip to prevent the very high risks involved with going cold turkey.
#30
Squats within a 1 mile radius of any cylindrical object without a flared base.
#31
Roller Derby.
flax_butter:
Fair. I've only been doing it for 8 months, but I've already broken my tailbone and witnessed 2 leg fractures, both of which required surgery. Almost everyone in my league has broken at least one bone while playing. The love for the sport is just bigger than the fear of injury, I suppose.
#32
Kinda late here but one I haven't seen listed people don't think about is changing a tire at the side of a highway. Too many people who did everything right but still lost life or limb because someone clipped their car or even themselves. Just pull off at the next exit. I would rather pay for a completely new wheel than be struck by a vehicle.
BarkingSquirell 4 hours ago
We have a commercial here asking for people to slow down and change lanes when they see a tow truck. We all know what that PSA means.
#33
Not a doctor but a former hospital Social Worker and worked for 3 years in acquired brain injury unit.
Dirt biking (off road motorbikes). We had so many young men with severe brain injuries as a result of dirt bike riding. My nephew has lost 4 friends over the past 3 years to dirt bike accidents. It’s a dangerous hobby.
#34
No trampoline
No motorcycle
No ebike
No football
No backsquatting, deadlifting, or weighted glute bridge beyond 1 plate (135).
#35
I’m not a medical professional but I knew two young, healthy men in their 20s who died in separate climbing accidents. I will never climb outside a gym.
#36
After four knee surgeries, including a replacement, I asked my doctor how soon I could get back to playing racquetball. He said if I picked up a racket, he would never help me again.
#37
Contact sports. I’m not a super strict parent but one of my biggest rules is no football.
Cara Vinson 5 hours ago
the latest study showing 25% of NFL brains had CTE would have me pull my kid out now. My husband and I almost had a fight over pulling a kid out of football. WE DON'T HAVE KIDS.
#38
Not really a hobby, but I will never get under a jacked up car without jack stands and wheel chocks.
Cara Vinson 5 hours ago
I saw a guy get pulled into the street by his jacked up truck when I was 12. Never gonna forget that one.
#39
OK, got another one. Parasailing.
The year before I worked there, participant in the annual event attended our Emergency Department with a broken ankle.
The year I was there, in an ambulance in our car park, deceased.
#40
Alpine climbing / mountaineering enters the room.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a wonderful hobby/sport, but it comes with a pretty extraordinary collection of ways to get yourself into trouble.
For starters, it’s essentially climbing and backcountry skiing rolled into one, with the dangers of both sports layered on top of each other.
Then you have the objective hazards. Things you can assess and mitigate to some extent, but never completely control. Avalanches, serac collapse (where huge blocks of glacial ice can break off over your head with little or no warning), rockfall, which has been particularly intense in the Alps this year, or crevasses, which are deep cracks in glaciers that can sometimes be completely hidden beneath seemingly solid snow bridges.
Then add the physiological hazards: altitude sickness, pulmonary or cerebral edema, hypothermia, frostbite, snow blindness, dehydration, extreme exhaustion and impaired judgement from cold, fatigue and lack of oxygen.
And all of this happens in an inherently hostile environment, anywhere from roughly 3,000 to 8,000 metres, where the air gets progressively thinner, temperatures can become brutally cold, weather can change incredibly fast, and rescue may be hours or sometimes days away.
The fascinating thing about mountaineering is that being experienced doesn’t make those hazards disappear. It mostly makes you better at recognising them.
Annik Perrot 6 hours ago
One of my friends went climbing alone, fell into à crevasse and died there.
#41
Oh boy where do I begin? Don’t shower in a bathroom with aaaany objects whatsoever on the floor you can fall on, seatbelt less driving while wondering how long you can drive safely with your eyes closed, getting on a sidecar motorcycle without full protection for the first time and underestimating the distance to a pole, carrying firearms without proper holsters and having it drop down your pants and discharging upwards and striking right where you can expect it to hit, deciding to become a participant in a rodeo when you have no experience whatsoever but tho ugh the it would be cool, deciding self defense is ever a better idea if escaping is a good idea when the other person has a knife and is approaching you while they are in a wheelchair and drunk, being drunk next to rail tracks while having your hoodie on and headphones blasting music in the middle of the night, thinking that throwing anything at law enforcement is a good idea because you thought they were off to no good when they were in fact just doing a homicide investigation, amateur hang gliding after being taught it just once, deciding spelunking in a cave with a diy harness, playing chicken with a live Roman candle held in your mouth trying to be like Godzilla, trying to place an angled PVC pipe smaller then your member and once stuck and painful leaving it there for 9 days before coming to the ER to have it be removed with an orthopedic bone saw…. After having exactly the same thing happen the previous year.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few but being a trauma surgeon is a wild ride for sure.
#42
I’m a social worker, but I’ve worked a lot in healthcare.
For me it’s not taking care of your diabetes. If you catch it early, it’s simple to keep it in check. So many people just ignore it.
Advanced diabetes is maybe one of the worst ways to d*e imo.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 17 hours ago
Morbid obesity is rampant in my family, and that causes diabetes in nearly all of my obese family members. I've watched a cousin d*e at age 23 to kidney failure caused by ignored diabetes. Both of his parents later also died of obesity-caused diabetes. I've seen other family members get gangrene and have to have limbs amputated - arms, feet, legs. And it's entirely preventable and treatable. My family is just in the most unbelievable group denial ever. It's like a shared hallucination. My aunt was an ER/trauma nurse for decades and she's morbidly obese. She acts like there's nothing wrong with it. Her daughter, my cousin, has been obese since childhood, and my cousin now has SO many illnesses/diseases that are caused by her obesity. Cousin is barely 40 and already showing signs of Parkinson's as well.
#43
Son of a neurosurgeon here adding boats. Specifically, boating while drunk, which is often.
We had no trampolines, motorcycles, mopeds, ATVs, or guns in the house. I can’t tell you how many times I heard about these accidents. And wear a seatbelt.
BookFanatic 7 hours ago
There's a huge upset in a nearby town regarding this. A drunk boater plowed his speedboat into a pontoon boat. Unalived a bunch of people.
#44
As an EMT I'll pile onto motorcycle. But I'll also add that a *ridiculous* number of my 911 calls are alcohol related.
Greg Hedley 16 hours ago
Driving while fatigued has the same total number of driver mortalities as alcohol and d**g related vehicle d.eaths combined. Plus passengers of course
#45
Not a doctor, but a woodworker. I'm surprised powertools aren't making much of an appearance on this list. Thoughts, doctors?
fingersarefun:
Hand surgeon here. Many wood workers and machinists etc lost parts of their fingers and just get back to life. True table saw injuries with multiple digits happen, but less frequently when people are experienced and careful. Also the saws with the auto stop are hopefully becoming more common. Many of my orthopedic partners do wood working because it’s so similar to what we do to bones. You just have to be careful.
We are much more worried about motorcycles, ATVs, trampolines, and things where you lose your life, cognitive function, and ability to walk pain free.
Henghayki8:
Woodworking. Lathe related injuries are some of the horrific things I've even seen in my life...
BookFanatic 7 hours ago
A good friend of mine was working with his table saw when the wood got stuck. This otherwise-brilliant-experienced gentleman decided to shove it with his hand. Shortly after this he had to pick his thumb and forefinger up off the floor and tell his wife he needed to go to the ER.
#46
I was in for cutting off my finger on a table saw and I asked the hand surgeon what sort of accident he treated the most. Without any pause, he said matter-of-factly that he gets to meet most of his clients because of table saws, circular saws and dogs.
#47
I would say pruning. My friend worked at an eye clinic and the number of people coming in with branches stuck in their eye hole was very high. Never prune anything above your head.
#49
Any extreme sport, especially the ones that require helmets and also spine protection.
I am not a thrill-seeker (primary care and investment in the stock market is enough risk for me) and I really like having an intact spinal cord.
#50
Anesthesiologist & Critical Care physician:
Never ever:
1. Get on a Motorcycle
2. Drink around fire
3. Play around fire
4. Add accelerant to fire
5. Smoke while wearing oxygen.
random_froggg (she/they 86/47) 18 hours ago (edited)
A-d-d-i-c-t-i-o-n really is a disease. To smoke while wearing oxygen, really?! Do people not realize our air is not just oxygen and that pure oxygen is highly flammable?!
#51
Ladders. Avoid ladders if you can.
Lukas (alt) 16 hours ago
"You know, studies show that keeping a ladder inside the house is more dangerous than a loaded gun. That's why I own ten guns. In case some maniac tries to sneak in a ladder." -Grunkle Stan, Gravity Falls. What a wonderful show that was.
#52
Bull riding from when I worked out in the country, if it don’t get you while you’re young it’ll get ya even after you’ve hung up your boots.
#53
Pickleball. It's all a front for Big Ortho. The amount of older people destroying their knees hips and shoulders is insane.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 17 hours ago
Huh. My sister (age 50) and her friend (age 65ish) both love pickleball.
#54
Fishing -- I see far too many in places I would never want to have a fish hook (which is pretty much anywhere but you can also use your imagination). Those hooks are made to NOT come out without a fight.
BookFanatic 7 hours ago
I was equally appalled and fascinated when my father told little me he'd have to push the hook through my skin until the barb was free and then snip it off. Still not entirely sure if he was serious or trying to scare me into being super careful.
#55
Not a exactly a hobby but using a pogo stick. I was so upset after someone gave me one as a gift but my mom wouldn’t let me go near it even with a helmet. she had the same rules for trampolines but they don’t usually fit in an apartment. she already had to stitch me up enough for things that were safe (I was a dumb kid) and adding those would be a catastrophe. if I ever have kids they will not be going near either of those.
#57
I lifeguarded for over a decade worst beach/lake thing is floaties and tanning over watching toddlers.
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BookFanatic 7 hours ago
And then there's me, whose most dangerous hobby is knitting--I tell ya, accidentally sitting on one of those needles is guaranteed to wake you up!
Paul Rabit 6 hours ago
I assumed most of these hobbies were dangerous baseline, though a couple of them (pickleball) were a little silly. And of course, adding alcohol to anything ups the risk...
David Paterson 17 hours ago (edited)
On a previous BP thread we had a coroner warn us of the danger of choking on steak. That rates as more dangerous than most people think. It's not something that many medical staff would come across, because you're either OK or deaded.
BookFanatic 7 hours ago
And then there's me, whose most dangerous hobby is knitting--I tell ya, accidentally sitting on one of those needles is guaranteed to wake you up!
Paul Rabit 6 hours ago
I assumed most of these hobbies were dangerous baseline, though a couple of them (pickleball) were a little silly. And of course, adding alcohol to anything ups the risk...
David Paterson 17 hours ago (edited)
On a previous BP thread we had a coroner warn us of the danger of choking on steak. That rates as more dangerous than most people think. It's not something that many medical staff would come across, because you're either OK or deaded.
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