Welcome to my blog about health, nursing, caring, kindness and positive change. Our world is full of such negative influences and bad choices, today is the day to make a positive change both physically and mentally in your life.
ERNursesCare is a blog incorporating my nearly 30 years of experience in the healthcare field with my passion for helping others, I want it to encourage others with injury prevention, healthy living, hard hitting choices, hot topics and various ramblings from my unique sense of humor. Come along and enjoy your journey......
The picture says it....Drink, Drive...............Go To Jail! We all know this is true, so why do you still do it?
With the popularity of Uber, Lyft and other ride sharing services, plus the fact that nearly everyone has a smart phone now with social media access.............Get a ride home!! Driving buzzed, drunk or even high on prescription medications is not the right answer! Save a life this New Years, it might be your own!
Don't let me see you in the ER this weekend, I am working and you will get a lecture......just sayin!
Letting my oldest child drive a car has to be the single hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life, as a mom it is gut wrenching to see your babies grow up and get behind the wheel. But as an ER nurse it is terrifying to know the statistics that are out there're concerning teen drivers. The what if's run thru your head all the time. So what can you do as a parent?
Get yourself informed and stay informed! Education is the key to the prevention of injury. Teach your teen how to respect the road, the car, the cell phone and other motorists on the road. No respect for those things.....no keys at my house. Keep the conversation going consistently and daily. Learning to drive is often considered a rite of passage for teenagers. But with the reward of being a new driver comes real risk. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States, taking the lives of eight teens a day. CDC's Injury Center is committed to preventing teen crashes and related deaths and injuries.
According to a CDC study, Drivers aged 16 or 17 years involved in fatal crashes—United States, 2004–2008 [PDF - 1.92 MB], published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the annual number of 16- and 17-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes decreased by 36% from 2004 to 2008. The study states that graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, or teen driving laws, that exist in 49 states can be credited at least in part for the reduction in death rates. These laws limit driving under high risk conditions for newly-licensed drivers, such as driving at night and transporting other teen passengers.
However, since one out of every three teen deaths is the result of a motor vehicle crash, further reductions in teen crashes and related injuries are essential. CDC's new "Parents Are the Key" campaign and "Policy Impact: Teen Driver Safety" issue brief can help parents, policymakers, and others take steps to save young lives.
"Parents Are the Key" Campaign Launched Nationally
As a parent, you have the greatest influence over your teen's behavior. In fact, leading experts believe parents play a key role in preventing teen car crashes and deaths. Take the first step: Talk with your teen about staying safe behind the wheel. Then, keep the conversation going. You can steer your teen in the right direction, and "Parents Are the Key" has proven steps that can help.
CDC developed the "Parents Are the Key" campaign to help inform parents across the nation about the key role they can—and should—play in protecting their teen drivers. Individuals and groups can use the "Parents Are the Key" campaign materials to help parents learn about the most dangerous driving situations for their young driver and how to avoid them. All of the campaign materials—including a parent-teen safe driving agreement, posters, fact sheets, video, social media tools, implementation guide, and more—are available free of charge atwww.cdc.gov/parentsarethekey.
Policy Impact Brief Focuses on Teen Driver Safety
Policy Impact: Teen Driver Safety is the first in a new series of issue briefs highlighting key public health issues and important, science-based policy actions that can be taken to address them. In a simple, at-a-glance format, this new brief features critical information on the tremendous toll that crashes among teen drivers take, as well as CDC's recommendations for improving new driver safety. Highlights include
By making these new resources available, CDC aims to provide parents, policymakers, and others with proven information on how to help teen drivers live to their full potential.
Credit to: CDC works 24/7 saving lives and protecting people from health threats to have a more secure nation. A US federal agency, CDC helps make the healthy choice the easy choice by putting science and prevention into action. CDC works to help people live longer, healthier and more productive lives.
Faces that were once flawless, full of life, smiling and happy. Faces that now tell stories of heartache, lost lives and lost dreams. We all seem to know someone that has been affected by a drunk driver. Behind those faces still lives a real person with a real heart! Think twice about driving anything after drinking alcohol or taking any type of mind altering substance, in a split second you can change the face of someone else forever! I continue to share stories of victims so that one day at least one person will think and not get into that car drunk and at least one live may be saved, one of those lives could have been one of these sweet people's lives and dreams!
Credit to www.FacesofDrunkDriving for some of this information
Natalia Bennett and four others were headed home from a birthday party in Austin. Her front seat passenger was Jacqui Saburido. It was a little past 4:00 in the morning on Sunday, September 19, 1999.
Reggie Stephey, 18, was also on his way home. He had been drinking. Less than a mile from his driveway, Reggie drifted across the center stripe and hit Natalia’s car head on. Natalia Bennett and Laura Guerrero died at the scene.
Jacqui suffered third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body after the car caught fire.
The only thing Jacqui remembers about the crash is the whir of the blades on the helicopter that came to rush her to the hospital. Extensive third-degree burns scorched her eyes and left her blind; melted off her hair; took her ears, lips, nose, and eyelids; and robbed her of the use of her hands. Doctors did not expect her to survive.
But she did. Jacqui has had well over 100 operations since the crash. When her medical bills topped $5 million several years ago, she lost count of the total expenses. She has no health insurance.
The carefree, fun-filled life Jacqui once knew as a teenager in Caracas is gone forever. Her appearance and her ability to live independently went up in flames over a decade ago, along with her plans for a career and a family. She continues to be unsure of what her future holds.
A Dallas native, Sean was a business major at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. He loved sports and girls, a good combination for a guy who was an athlete and who already had modeling agents in Dallas and New York City.
Sean’s mother, Jenny, had her hands full with Sean; his identical twin brother, Todd; and his older brother Ben.
The night before Easter Sunday in 2005 changed everything for all of them.
The vehicle spun to the left and
the right passenger door of the
pickup struck a tree in the median.”
Sean still can’t remember that Saturday night. Like many times before, he had been out drinking. When he was ready to call it a night, he simply got a ride with a friend. Unfortunately, his friend had been drinking too.
Just five minutes from the safety of Sean’s apartment, the driver lost control of his truck and slammed into a tree – on the passenger side where Sean was sitting.
No one ever discussed being a designated driver.
Ryan McDaniel was once a college athlete enjoying the benefits of a full football scholarship at a major university. When his grades fell, he transferred to play at Midwestern State. That’s where he met Sean Carter.
After they’d been drinking for several hours, Ryan was driving Sean home when his truck hydroplaned and crashed into a tree. He pleaded guilty to a charge of intoxication assault and was placed on probation for 10 years. His goal to be a football coach vanished. When Ryan was again arrested for drinking and driving, his probation violation landed him in prison and county jails for 26 months. Released in 2011, he now works in his family’s fishing business.
Ryan and Sean met up seven years after the crash. They agreed their roles could have been reversed. Now both men are focused on hope, healing, and a restoration of their friendship.
Since the crash, Sean and Jenny have embraced their new mission in life – to tell everyone they can about choices, consequences, and the preventable dangers of drinking and driving.
WhenSeanSpeaks, Inc is Sean’s and Jenny’s nonprofit organization that raises money for traumatic brain injury research. Through it, they are sharing their story nationwide to help others with traumatic brain injuries like Sean’s.
This commitment to their new mission to help others led them to join the Texas Department of Transportation’s drunk driving prevention, awareness, and education campaign.
Save a Life isn't just the name of the Texas Department of Transportation's DWI-prevention and public education program – it's a call to action for everyone using Texas roads and freeways.
Texas drivers look out for others. They help each other. They don't let others drive drunk, they don't tolerate those who do, or ride with them.
Drinking and driving injures or kills Texas drivers every day. This is why the Save a Life program wants these stories to be heard. They do it for the same reason Sean and Jacqui tell us their stories – to save lives.
Save A Life should be a nationwide campaign, why should just Texas be using it, think about a nationwide educational program that all states were taught, all kids knew and all people could share! Dreams, why should they be! Drunk Driving has got to stop, it is a no brainer people!!
The following video makes you think also in our social media world now, just what happens when you do tweet a little #happyhour tweet.... what might follow
All the people in this video sadly have something in common, can you figure it out?
Drinking and driving knows no boundaries , all ages are susceptible in all countries and all languages. Think you are safe at home, your kids are safe playing right in your back yard? Think again....
Take the keys!
Don't let your family or friends in the drivers seat with alcohol or drugs
on board, next time it might be you or your family that is the victim.
Jacqui's story of strength and courage has got to be the one story that has always
stuck in my mind as I teach kids and teens out in the community and as I work busy weekends in the ED. Every time I have shared her amazing story and pictures with others it makes such an impact, I know for sure that many kids have been touched by her courage and by the life changing outcome of the driver who was drunk. Jacqui inspires everyone who meets her now or hears her story.
I love the reactions I get with teens in a full classroom as I show the before and after pictures of Jacqui, the shudders and squeals in horror of her face right after the crash, and the condition of that car. It makes such an impact and makes them think, this is real!! drinking and driving can actually hurt someone! and a normal person can be so stupid to crawl into a car, make one poor choice............only one......drive while under the influence of a substance and totally change the life of another person.
Please watch Jacqui's story, I know it is long, but do it for her, show it to your kids and your friends.
The Crash: September 19,1999~~
Natalia Bennett and four friends were headed home from a birthday party
in West Austin. Her front seat passenger was Jacqui Saburido. It was a
little past 4 in the morning on Sunday, September 19, 1999. Reggie
Stephey, 18, also was on his way home. He had been drinking.
Less than a mile from his driveway, Reggie drifted across the center
stripe and hit Natalia’s car head on. Natalia Bennett and Laura Guerrero
died at the scene. Jacqui suffered third degree burns over 60% of her
body after the car caught fire.
This is the most powerful image, that makes you think about life!
This one impacts the most teens.
The Driver » Reggie Stephey
Reggie Stephey was a senior at Lake Travis High School outside of
Austin. A self-described jock, he had hopes of going to college on an
athletic scholarship. But those dreams disappeared when he wound up
drinking beer with friends and tried to drive home.
He drifted
across the centerline and crashed his SUV into a car with 5 people. Two
died on the spot, and Jacqui Saburido almost burned to death when the
car caught fire.
Reggie was convicted of two counts of intoxication manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in the state penitentiary.
He was released in 2008 and lives in Austin, Texas.
Reggie was a normal high school kid, not into trouble, a football player that wanted to go to college and play football. His dreams came to a very fast halt when he chose to
get into his SUV and drive.....................after drinking...............a very poor choice!
Read more here http://facesofdrunkdriving.com
Visit Jacqui's page to see how you can help her http://helpjacqui.com/
Will you think twice now about driving unsafe, intoxicated or under the influence of
any substance at all, even prescription meds that are sedating can cause this! Think before you drive! Call a ride home! Save a life, might be your own!
[PDF - 1.92 MB]
