Category: health

Hot Jobs!

On By JohnIn health, safetyLeave a comment

Driver Needed. CDL +Hazmat required. Must know how to apply brakes to avoid a bus…

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I’m looking around trying to find something to back the current thinking about pure acetylene’s propensity to spontaneously explode over 30 psig. Clearly, we have some limits on use/storage/movement/and so forth, but the curious part of me really wants to know “how did we learn that?”. I mean, a scientific paper describing how exactly that was determined would be great. But I stumbled across the above.

It’s not the result of a high-pressure explosion of acetylene, but instead of one high pressure cylinder that outgassed (secondary to the collision), then combusted either against a vehicle’s hot exhaust or was ignited by a rich-burning engine.

Then all hell breaks loose.

You’d want an acetylene cylinder to outgas when it’s being boiled. Much more preferable. Outgassing with a dangerous but impressive flaming spire is significantly more agreeable (they have plugs that will melt to release the gas) than having the 250 psi steel bottle burst and release its high-pressure acetylene+acetone mix into a flames.

Rapid decomposition ensues.

Fine… explodiness ensues.

Those bottles weigh perhaps 60 kg. Empty, they’re perhaps 55 kg. If you knock the valve off of it, it’s a rocket.

Those rockets are not at all predictable in their paths. While you -do- see those impressive flame plumes behind them, it’s not the fire accelerating them. Any acceleration is entirely from the gas pressure inside the cylinder.

Scary stuff.

So what about oxygen bottles? Typically oxygen bottles are at slightly higher pressure than acetylene. About 2000 psi compared to acetylene cylinder’s 250 psig. Industrial, medical, aviation — with a few uncommon exceptions (low-pressure O2 tanks for example), oxygen bottles are typically charged to about 2000 psig.

It’s a bit scary to see what even a small medical-grade O2 cylinder can do when its valve is expeditiously detached from a 2000 psi tank… inside of an old-style ambulance. That little rocket very quickly added an extra window to truck’s metal box.

Fortunately, while oxygen isn’t flammable, it does tend to aide in combustion. Think Fire Triangle. Fire would have been horrifying.

Speaking of oxygen and fires, many years after I observed the result of what an unsecured O2 cylinder could do to an ambulance, there was a guy who once used LOX to rapidly (instantly?) create a ready to use BBQ grill by using a single match. Ah… here’s it is:

TBI Thoughts

On By JohnIn health, tbiLeave a comment

Somebody had posted this in a TBI group…

Hi everyone, how’s everyone doing? Quick question: what’s the recovery process like for Diffused Axonal shearing? Is there any coming back from this severe type of brain injury? 4 months in and my brother still doesn’t talk.

–Anonymous

And, because I can’t leave well enough alone, perhaps the world may stumble onto my thoughts and find some benefit from it:

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Okay, here’s the thing: “DAI” and “Shearing” are the terms that are used medically to describe what’s occurred.

Can anyone come back from it? Well, maybe. It depends on… well… everything.

We’re talking about the one thing in the whole of the known universe that can, so far as we know, interpret the universe. And if one’s brain has been jarred from an impact, if it’s survivable, it may effectively scramble all of the memories and knowledge that person had.

Brain Injuries are as unique as a thumbprint. No two TBIs are the same. With two identical twins in the prime of their health and youth were to sustain identical trauma, they will absolutely have a completely different array of issues. One may feel a bit tired for a few days… and the other may be fatal. They’re that unique.

So, can somebody come back from it? That, like all things, depends.

My TBI was about three years: 4m fall, head first onto concrete, knocked unconscious instantly, coma, DAI, CNS shearing. I was 45 and generally in perfect health. I was in a coma for about two weeks and had to relearn absolutely everything (and I do mean everything) and have been frustrated now and again with proprioception and dexterity challenges.

Today, I’m still relearning and gaining more understanding of the various bumps and ridges of my own particular TBI.

Have I come back? Eh, it depends on one’s interpretation of “coming back”. And upon who one asks. I don’t think I have, yet. But in some ways, I can do more now that I did before. I still walk with a cane every now and again, but don’t like it — yet I can still run a 5K or more (I ran a 1/4 marathon a few months ago). I get mentally exhausted much sooner than some people. But I’m learning how to work around it… and work with it.

It’s been a long journey through a mental and emotional hell — and through it all, it was critically important that I had support and understanding of my wife and family.

Short-notice?

On By JohnIn healthLeave a comment

Had to abruptly leave class today just before lunch.

Not because I wanted the day off nor that I’m sick (I feel fine and I’ve loads of things I wish to do) but because Daisy received positive test results.

Not positive “good” but positive “bad”.

She has had a sore throat a few days and a cough that was medically more likely an infection, but Covid tests were requested. Test results came back positive a few days later.

Notified the instructor, filled out a form for State & CDC tracking, clocked-out, grabbed my tools and quietly left the building.

Sucks. But, do the best we can.