The case of "Things that go BOOM in the night"

What was he cooking?

Every shift that I worked at the hospital emergency room was different. I absolutely loved that when I came to work I had no clue what could happen. This shift held a lot of excitement ahead.

It was about 2:00am when the call came in to our ER. We were about to receive several people with burn injuries.

The first one through the door was a man that told us he preferred to be called Bubba. He was a white man and was the size of Shaquille O’Neal. His skin had lots of imperfections as it was dotted with bug bites, scratches and scars. His hair looked singed and wild as every hair seemed to be standing at attention. Bubba was jovial and loved to talk; he talked incessantly. Perhaps it was due to the situation he found himself in that evening, or more likely, he talked a lot regardless of his situation.

Our next patient was a police officer in the ambulance right after Bubba. He and Bubba were brought in from the same location. The officer was young and had some significant burns but he still mustered up a smile when he looked at us.

I was at Bubba’s bedside when he began to tell his story to anyone who would listen. He said that he woke up at about 1:00am as he often does, and he was hungry. So he decided to cook up a big batch of fries. He heated the grease, threw in the potatoes and sat down in his recliner to rest a minute. He said that he must have fallen asleep, and when he woke up the stove was in flames. He went on to say that, being unsure and scared, he made a poor decision. He bear hugged that small trailer stove and began to rip it out of the wall; the grease spilled on him and was the most pain he had ever encountered. I walked over to help another patient and left Bubba in the care of his nurse.

Several policemen came by to check on their injured comrade. They said it was a meth lab that exploded. Only one officer was burned but several had inhaled the burning meth and were being treated at the burn center. 

It was true, there was a meth lab at Bubba’s trailer. Some of the neighbors had reported their suspicions that there was a drug house at his location and the police were closing in to make arrests. Just as they began to enter Bubba’s trailer, there was an explosion. Five people were burned that evening. The 3 most seriously burn victims were Bubba’s friends and they were sent directly to the local burn center at USA Hospital. Still our victims were in a great deal of pain and Bubba had the more serious injuries of the two we received. We treated them and eventually they too were transferred over to the burn center at USA hospital for further treatment.

Bubba had some significant burns that night but he seemed completely unconcerned about that. He was talking about falling asleep while frying some french fries and everyone knew he was not being truthful. Bubba stuck to his story.

I will never forget seeing him as he was wheeled out of our ER. He was waving goodbye to us like a beauty queen in the rose bowl parade, he smiled broadly with a semi-toothless grin. 

Bubba was a character and I learned from him. I now know that some people have never met the truth and would not recognize it if they did.

Eventually Bubba and his friends went on trial and they were all convicted. I watched as the story unfolded in the local news and I read the details in the newspaper. I was not surprised to learn that Bubba was the mastermind of the meth lab.