Joe Cain Day in the ER

It was a Sunday evening and I had just arrived in the ER to begin my shift when I heard the commotion out in the waiting room. It was Joe Cain Day during the Mardi Gras season in Mobile and some people tend to celebrate a little too much. A group of these partiers, who were having a great time a few hours earlier had arrived at our ER for help and they were now sobering a little bit while becoming disagreeable a whole bunch.

Joe Cain Day is known as the “The day for the common man” during Mardi Gras. People of all walks of life enter floats and sign up to march in groups and they form their own version of Mardi Gras. It is often one of the most exciting days of the celebration and is always scheduled on the Sunday just prior to Fat Tuesday. It turns out that a group of brothers and their friends made themselves a fabulous float and after working on it for half of a year they were ready to party like there was no tomorrow. Their partying and drinking began early that morning, so by the time they were loading onto this wonderful float, some could hardly stand up, life had become one big blur for them.  They had music blaring loud from the speakers on their float and things began with smiles and great anticipation of being in their very first parade!

Off they went, the crowds were waving and screaming “Throw me something!” “Moonpies mister!” So two of the brothers, Jack and Ian got into an argument over a bag of throws that lay at their feet between them. Both believed the bag was theirs and there was just no compromising to be had. After about a mile along the parade route, the verbal fight began, by the 2nd mile they could no longer contain themselves and the punches began to fly. They both ended up falling completely off the float onto the street below.

A couple of friends in the crowd loaded them up and came straight to our ER. They passed two other hospitals along the way but they preferred our facility. Neither had life-threatening injuries. Jack looked to be in the worst shape of the two. He had a large gash on his face and a broken right elbow. He ended up with 15 stitches in his face and surgery to repair the elbow. Ian was badly bruised in several places and he broke his left foot and a couple of toes, it was believed by him that their float’s back wheel had run over his foot. He too went to surgery.

When their wives arrived at the hospital they looked very concerned, yet they were extremely angry at the guys for being so foolish.

We received several Mardi Gras victims that evening but most were there due to extreme over drinking. They drank to the point of possible serious consequences. They had to be charcoaled to reduce the effects to their body. The charcoal grabs the alcohol or drugs that are not yet digested and carries it out of the body quickly to avoid any additional harmful effects. They were all very sick, retching and crying. Possibly they were questioning the decision to over drink? Who knows.

I wonder if the next day any of these partiers said,”Man, we had a great time!” Every single one of them at some point in time while they were there said they had no idea of what happened or how they  arrived at the hospital. They had large blank spots in their memory of the events that took place.

Is memory loss the new definition of…having a great time?

I enjoy the parades and festivities of Mardi Gras but I can see the dangers of over drinking to the point that you have no control and no memory, how could that be fun? I am happy to report that all of our Mardi Gras patients survived to enjoy another day. There is nothing wrong with having fun and everyone must decide what that means to them.