The First Fortnight

Just wrapped up my first two weeks of work, "on the road" - and I've got one story and a number of pictures to share. I was in Lake Charles, LA getting ready for my first visit at a McDonalds not too far from the hospital. A family walked in, right by me. I was situated by the front door, looking out towards the busy street.

One of the two girls runs out and across the street with the other girl not too far behind her.

"WAIT!!! WE DON'T NEED ANYMORE MONEY!!!" screamed the one sister to the one just feet away from me. At this point I was watching the two of them (considering she was screaming about 5 feet away). Well, the one sister that was across the street, turned, and ran back towards the McDonalds.

Between me and the road was a hedge, and this hedge made it impossible for me to see the girl get hit by the grey sedan, going about 30mph. The only way I could tell she'd been hit was that two flip-flops that she'd been wearing went flying up into the air. Not to make this any more dramatic than it was; but it felt like a scene from a movie.

I dropped my coffee and my precious new Oncology Roundtable 2008 Year Ahead document that I'd been intently studying and ran to her in the street. I got there before anyone else did and she lay motionless, with parts of herself covered in her own blood.

Over the next ten minutes or so, I was panicked. Called 911 but realized I had no idea what the address in this alien town was, luckily enough locals were around that we were able to figure it out. The ambulance was there pretty quickly, and by that time the girl was screaming - in apparent shock. She hit her mother at least once, and wasn't letting anyone get close to her. I suppose in retrospect, her hysterical nature was a good sign that she'd be fine.

My trip to Lake Charles came during my first solo trip for work - I'm attaching a picture I took on Thursday morning from my hotel in Denver.