Needlework

The Local: "A 32-year-old took the needle into his hands when he tired of the wait at Sundsvall hospital in northern Sweden and sewed up the cut in his leg himself. The man was later reported to the police for his impromptu handiwork. “It took such a long time,” the man told the local Sundsvall Tidning daily. The man incurred the deep cut when he sliced his leg on the sharp edge of a kitchen stove while he was renovating at home. “I first went to the health clinic, but it was closed. So I rang the medical help line and they told me that it shouldn’t be closed, so I went to emergency and sat there,” the man named only as Jonas told the newspaper. After an hour-long wait in a treatment room, he lost patience and proceeded to sew up his own wound. “They had set out a needle and thread and so I decided to take the matter into my hands,” he said. But hospital staff were not as impressed by his initiative and have reported the man on suspicion of arbitrary conduct for having used hospital equipment without authorization."

Here's the kicker:

"While Jonas admitted to the newspaper that he has no prior experience of sewing up himself he sought to play down the fuss that his handiwork has caused, arguing that "through the ages people have always sewn themselves up"."

This man will have a wonderful story to tell his grand kids. "Ya know, back in my day, they wouldn't even give us the needle and thread to sew ourselves up, we had to take it! And then sew it! And then be thrown in jail for it! Bah...."


All things considered, this is better then some of the horror stories I was hearing at the ER on Thursday night, one barely on the US side of the Mexican border. Men were not meant to have intestinal surgery and be taped back together with duck tape, nor is yarn meant to be for stitching.