Accidents Don't Happen

la a [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] Dr Marvin report to surgery Dr Marvin report to surgery [Music] oh [Applause] [Applause] n [Music] a [Music] [Music] he another heartbeat stopped the sound of Life silenced another accident they say accidents have killed almost 10 times as many people as all the wars in American history they say accidents injure over 50 million of us a year that means everybody gets injured once in about 3 years accidents cost a lot of money too 10 or 11 billion dollar a year something like that over $60 for each person in my family do accidents just happen I ought to know the answer I've seen the results of enough of them I remember Fred Taylor's case his wife called him at the office told him their baby daughter had a high fever she begged him to hurry home are these flowers for the child no she's okay the flowers are for Fred he pants tripped fell downstairs and broke his leg what really caused Fred's accident I walked a long way thinking about that the stairs Fred Tangled with were just an ordinary flight of stairs can't blame them for the accident it was anxiety for his child that kept his natural safeguards from operating automatic things like walking and sitting things he did every day without thinking stop being automatically safe his signals got mixed up and we call that an accident of course not every real cause of an accident is as obvious as Fred's fear for his little girl's health I remember remember last spring I had a night call as I drove to the patient's home I thought another accident what caused this one what mixed up the safety signals this time the worried wife took me to her husband he was a doit your selfer and had cut his finger in his home Workshop I fixed him up and looked around the house was a mess the wife was really fat the kids well they sure look like an epidemic of accidents I got interested in this family the way things worked out for them makes me sort of proud of myself it wasn't easy because here in this one family there were all kinds of reasons emotional physical social physiological reasons the mother her overweight condition was the symptom of an emotional problem that she tried to forget by overeating I finally got her to understand this and was able to help her she looks and feels fine now and her husband that was simple after I got him to have his eyes checked he looks at the world a whole lot better with his new glasses those kids no accidents lately there wasn't anything really wrong with them after Mom and Dad were taken care of this is an accident free family now so many accidents come from physical disabilities poor hearing poor eyesight disease old age and emotional disturbances that made Fred Taylor's signals get crossed up like that other patient who almost cut his finger off on his home Workshop saw same accident as the father who needed glasses but a different Reon reason this fell had an argument with his neighbor made him mad and another accident then there are all those things the experts call physiological factors medicines for hay fever and allergies tranquilizers alcohol too much food any one of these can affect the body and mind mind and cause [Music] accidents So Many Factors so many reasons for accidents sometimes a physical reason sometimes an emotional reason sometimes a combination we need to study these things we need a a lot more research there are thousands of facts we've got to learn before we understand how to prevent accidents in a systematic successful way millions of dollars spent in the United States on medical research every year now accident prevention has to get it share we've got to tackle this problem the way polio was tackled the way heart disease is being tackled research that's the answer to all this needless waste of lives in the meantime what about me I know I sometimes drive too fast and I take chances I don't always try to figure out what the other Fell's going to [Music] do I must work work harder at this I must get seat belts for the car be twice as safe and our house overloaded wiring burned out a fuse last night tried to get around with matches burn my fingers hit my ankle on a chair almost set the house on fire our medicine at home are they safely out of the kids's reach when Jimmy asked his mother for the car tonight was it right to let him have it he never did get to take that driver training class at school and he's got a heavy foot on the gas Dr Marvin report to surgery Dr Marvin report to surgery [Music]