Bloody B-Ball Battle
By Michael Smith, Staff Writer
6/21/2007
We all love competition, right? Well, perhaps that is the main cause of a couple of incidents that occurred during the basketball tournament on Monday. The heat was intense; sweat beaded on the bodies of the players, but the intense heat of battle was even greater as the Washington and Jefferson City basketball teams faced off on the rugged, concrete court number two.
The first incident was when Mike Smith lugged in a nice defensive rebound. On the way down, he got caught up in the fray, came down hard, and scraped his left elbow. However, this is not the extent of the great pain that was experienced during this activity. Ben Paul, once a mayor hopeful for the great city of Washington, was just an innocent bystander/player, who happened to be standing under the basket playing defense. An opposing player went up for a lay-up, that part was fine, then the second part, was not so much. The opposing play then came down hard right on the top of poor Ben’s head with his elbow. At first Ben thought, “Man, his elbow kind of hit hard!” As Ben touched the area of impact, he noticed that his hand was covered with blood. That’s interesting he thought. Once the blood started pouring onto his face and chest, he knew that this was a serious situation. His teammates were shocked and concerned for their fellow man.
The great and noble mayor of Washington City Ian Pendleton swooped to the rescue and escorted Ben away. Ben started to run, but Ian, as wise as he is, told him to walk. They hunted for a staff person as Ben applied pressure to the wound. Ian found someone, and Ben was taken into the office located in the lobby of Brody Complex. The legionnaires were astonished at the proportion of thick, red blood that now enveloped Ben’s head, face, and chest. The legionnaires wiped some of the blood off, but this was still not enough. Ben needed serious help fast. He was taken to Sparrow Clinic not too far from here where further unknown treatments awaited him. Ben waited in line behind a man with a bruised leg that went in BEFORE him. Once Ben received treatment, his injury was cleaned. He was given a topical anesthetic to numb it. After waiting for an hour, the doctor was finally available.
By now, the numbing effect had already worn off! Ben had just recently learned that there was a one inch gash in his head. How unfortunate. Now Ben had two choices: Re-numb the wound with an injection for another 20 minutes, or, let the doc staple them up with NO anesthetic. What a choice. Ben, being the brave (or just needle fearing) man he is, decided on the staples. WOW! As the doctor did his work, Ben could feel every one of those staples puncture his skin and fold in to close up the wound. The pain was excruciating. Ben had to keep his head still while sitting up. He lost his breath on the second staple, and the doctor took his sweet time on the third and final staple. Ben came back alive, however, and resumed activities today in full form.