My twenty six year old son had a bicycle accident in Brooklyn last Friday and woke up while having a cat scan. He doesn't remember what happened. He had a broken collar bone, five stitches on his scalp line, a concussion, sore ribs and assorted contusions.
We went up from Pennsylvania to see what we could do. His bicycle was down at the 77th precinct police station several miles away. It wasn't damaged and they allowed us to pick it up and return it to him with a minimum of trouble, just verified that we had the same last name. His laptop is bent on a corner but working. His cell phone was okay. He had his wallet. There was some trouble getting his prescription for pain pills, but the pharmacist stayed twenty minutes after work talking to the hospital for over an hour straightening out some paperwork. Everything was efficiently and courteously handled.
This reminded me of the accident 40 years ago. A good friend from high school was going back to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and ran off the road north of Phoenix. His injuries put him in the hospital for a couple of weeks and he lost a kidney. While he was unconscious someone stopped and took his wallet and spare tire.
It is tempting to say something about good conservative family values versus how one is treated in the big liberal city, but it's just two random events. Still...
He is getting a helmet for Christmas maybe this time he'll wear the damn thing.
No more.