tarapants.com

Our director of trauma surgery at Penn died in Irag this week.

He was pretty rad. I will miss him…a lot.

This is an article he wrote about philly and the war outside our front doors.

The War in West Philadelphia

By John P. Pryor
Sunday, August 5, 2007

I didn’t hear the cars screech to a halt, but one of the trauma nurses did. He ran outside with two emergency department medics to find several people in a car, all of their clothes soaked with blood. The passengers were screaming for someone to help the young man in the front seat, who was unresponsive. The team threw the limp victim onto a gurney, one of several that stand waiting for these types of scenarios, which occur almost nightly at our trauma center.

As the gurney rolled in, I saw a lifeless young man with more gunshot wounds than I could count. I was poised to start a resuscitation effort when a voice behind me announced that three more were coming in. As the team started CPR and checked for cardiac activity, the second and third victims were wheeled in.

A young girl had a gunshot wound to the abdomen that made her writhe in pain. Her movements were slow and her mental functioning was impaired, signaling to me that she was in profound shock — she was dying. I caught only a passing glance of the third patient, who had a gunshot wound to the neck and was coughing up blood. Those brief images were enough for me to sum up a desperate situation; I pronounced the first patient dead to concentrate resources on the other critically injured.

The nursing staff rolled the dead man’s body into a bed and readied the stall for the fourth patient, who had three gunshot wounds to his right arm and two to his left. With the emergency medicine physicians, surgery residents and medics working on the two critical patients, I assigned the fourth patient to a capable medical student who courageously accepted the battlefield promotion to intern.

In the swirl of screams and moving figures, my mind drifted to my recent experience in Iraq as an Army surgeon. There we dealt regularly with “mascals,” or mass-casualty situations. In Iraq, ironically, I found myself drawing on my experience as a civilian trauma surgeon each time mascals would overrun the combat hospital. As nine or 10 patients from a firefight rolled in, I sometimes caught myself saying “just like another Friday night in West Philadelphia.”

The wounds and nationalities of the patients are different, but the feelings of helplessness, despair and loss are the same. In Iraq, soldiers die for freedom, for honor, for their country and for their buddies. Here in Philadelphia, they die without honor, without purpose, for no country, for no one.

More young men are killed each day on the streets of America than on the worst days of carnage and loss in Iraq. There is a war at home raging every day, filling our trauma centers with so many wounded children that it sometimes makes Baghdad seem like a quiet city in Iowa.

Unlike the Iraq conflict, this war is not on the front pages of The Post or on CNN. You have heard of the Washington area sniper shootings and the massacre at Virginia Tech. I am sure you have not heard about the “Lex Street massacre,” in which 10 people ages 15 to 56 were lined up and shot, execution-style, in the winter of 2000. Seven were killed, three critically injured.

You haven’t heard about this tragedy because it happened to inner-city poor people in a crack house in Philadelphia. Imagine, for a moment, if this had occurred in a suburban shopping mall or if a Marine unit in Iraq had been involved. There would be shock, outrage, 24-hour news coverage, Senate hearings and a new color of ribbon to wear. That double standard, that triage of compassion and empathy, is why the war on the streets continues unabated.

I am on call Wednesday night. The statistics indicate that then I will once again walk with the chaplain to a small room off the emergency room. I will open a heavy brown door and make eye contact with a room full of people; a mother, perhaps a father or a grandmother. They will look at me with tears welling up, their knees weak, and lean forward while watching my lips, bracing for news about their loved one. I will remain standing and reach out to hold the mother’s hand. My announcement will be short and firm, the intonation polished from years of practice. The words will be simple for me to say, but sharp as a sword for them to hear; “I am sorry, your son has died.”

The writer directs the trauma program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He served at a combat hospital in Abu Ghraib Iraq.

This is a link to his memorial site:

DR. JOHN PRYOR

John:

* as a soldier, we respect and salute you.
* as a teacher, we seek to emulate you.
* as a visionary, we support you.
* as a surgeon, we recognize your master skills
* as a human, we applaud and memorialize your unique and lasting contributions.

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper’s editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Otherwise, Blagojevich considered appointing himself. The affidavit said that as late as Nov. 3, he told his deputy governor that if “they’re not going to offer me anything of value I might as well take it.”

“I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain,” Blagojevich allegedly said later that day, according to the affidavit, which also quoted him as saying in a remark punctuated by profanity that the seat was “a valuable thing — you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

The affidavit said Blagojevich also discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

Finally OJ gets what was always coming to him…

Karma is a bitch huh?

Got some good stuff coming. I promise…

Pennsylvania is really great. You can drive a few hours west of Philly and be in the middle of nowhere. It’s kinda cool to know that places like this still exist. Yeah for open spaces!

If they weren’t sold out through 2010 and I had a couple 100,000 dollar bills around…I would buy one in a second!

So amazing and the movie/marketing/ad design is even brilliant. BRAVO!

BUS

I have been waiting all summer for tonight. I am soooo excited for the olympics to start. They are my absolute favorite thing. Someday we will go and I am hoping we make it out to Canada in a few years for the winter ones and then have to be patient and pick a good summer spot…It’s crazy that the time difference is so much for these games. I am hoping that I can hold out and find out live instead of it being spoiled by some news person.

The opening ceremonies:

We scored… Big time on the flight home from Tokyo. Chuck and all his awesomeness got us upgraded to first class because of his status with good ol’ United. Word. It was awesome. Super nice plane and we even talked the steward into letting us bring Ramon and Wendy up front to pound Champaign with us. Here are some of the highlights. It’s funny how you could care less about how far the flight is when you are cozy and content.

Tokyo Airport

We even got in a quick sushi train last meal on our way out. It was delicious.

Shots outside the duty free shop. So great.

The classic shot

So much leg room even for me..

Bringing the crew up to drink with us.

They even feed you really well. seared tuna..what?! crazy good.

Big time. I never even finished my Tokyo stuff so here is the end of it.

Crazy nice area called Ginza. We wet to an insane paper store where we spent a good amount of time buying one of everything.

ODAIBA and beyond

Sumo wigs. awesome.

I def walked away with some good luck from this little well…

ahhh. Prada… and next door was Cartier. heaven for sure.

Sneaker pimpness at Tokyo only Bathing Ape story. Yawn. About as exciting as Supreme was - which is like watching paint dry. But at least they did have a cool shoe display.

Chuck and I broke out the grill/deck furniture the other night. Got the first crabs of the year. They were good. We are heading to Annapolis one of these days soon to go to Cantler’s Inn and get the best ones around but these were still yummy!

I love giraffe’s. This is a little nuts.

The fish market is awesome. Just soo freakin’ cool. We got up at like 4:15am and headed out for the 5am tuna auction. Numerous people told us not to miss it. I was having trouble understanding why that early in the morning as my head pounded, but when we got there I quickly realized what they were talking about!

The tuna are gigantic and it’s really fun to watch everyone scramble to bid on the ones they want. Cruising through the rest of the market is a real treat. Lots of worming stuff to look at, smells to take in and 3 wheel carts to avoid.

We headed over to have a sushi breakfast at 6am after we were done the auction festivities. BEST sushi of my life..for sure. I can’t imagine ever having anything that tastes better then what we had. No body spoke English in the place we went to, but it didn’t really matter. We just ate whatever they put in front of us (except for the raw shrimp one).

Getting there was fun. The subway is usually a very hectic and crazy place. At 4:30am it is totally empty. It was a treat.

I even asked this guy directions all in Japanese. Go me.

The auction:

The sushi breakfast of all time:

So we left Philly way before sunrise and made it to DC just in time to watch the sun come up over all the planes.

We got off the smallest plane and went straight to the massage place to loosen up for our 12 hour flight to Beijing. Had one last good ol’ American breakfast and got ready to go.

If you have never been to Dulles then you wouldn’t know about the cool land rovers. They have these cool people movers. Like something out of Star Wars. Fun

INSIDE:

OUTSIDE:

When we landed in Beijing it was unreal how much pollution was in the air. it was like a blanket of smog until we actually hit the ground. Then you couldn’t see very far away at all. These give you a little idea of the mess they are dealing with. The airport is so big it’s really overwhelming.

The airport was like 100 degrees..inside! yikes. Our first little bit of shock to the system. We stripped down a hoodie layer and then cruised around the gigantic airport. I bought an Olympic pin which was cool. I can’t imagine how the athletes are going to perform in this soup.

The we got on our Asiana airlines flight to Seoul. Best airline. Super good service and food. We flew into Korea just as the sun was setting the day after we left home. Crazy!

Ramon and Wendy had just flown in from San Fran and were waiting for us in the airport. No worries with bags or customs at all.

We grabbed some bus tickets and headed to Wendy’s home town of Suwon to check into Wendy’s mom and dad’s apartment. It took about an hour or so to get there. There wasn’t much to see in the dark but tons of neon crosses and crazy Korean neon signs in the distance. The bus was super plush. Almost nicer then the plane!

We made it home last night or early this morning. I am tired. ugh.

10 hours flight from Seoul, South Korea to Vancouver, Canada. 5 hours to DC and 20 minutes to Philly.

Everything went super smooth and we made all our insane connections with a few small sprints with some of them. The trip was beyond amazing. We can’t wait to go back!

I’ll have some work to do with photos this weekend after I figure out what day it is and what time zone my body is on.

Here are a few to get you going…

This is the only thing cool about the campaign that I have seen so far. not impressed with anything else though.

Good job Shepard!

Josh- don’t pass out. This does not reflect my political views…

just my taste in cool art work.

A Middlebury college student has gone missing. Vermont is such a small and safe state that when things like this happen it seems so unreal. Just thought I would post it since it really hasn’t made any major headlines yet and he has been missing for almost a month.

This is Nick Garza and here is the website his parents have set up:

NICK

ugh. A freakin’ exam every single Monday until the 3rd week in December and then it’s finals. Throw in an occasional Tuesday night exam here or there and it makes for one pissed off, tired, over worked, grumpy girl. I’m hating it right now. Can’t really think of anything worse…Oh yeah maybe watching anything that has to do about the state of our economy/country or the joke of a political race (or so they would like to call it politics) for president …I am ready to move out of this place ASAP. Next flight to anywhere Scandinavian please. They pay NP’s well there so I’m gonna look into it. Everyone is welcome to visit me in my own private paradise…ha. I’m such a dreamer.

They even have cute gift shops…maybe I could work here.

FINLAND

SWEDEN

NORWAY

I wish…

It is getting cold around here. I am ready for it. Don’t get me wrong I love summer and the beach and all that good stuff but I’m ready for Fall and crisp mornings. The leaves have pretty much changed here. At least with the time change it’s not totally dark when I leave and when I come home. Just one way now.