surely someone has written this

[healingmirth]

Dear people who are in XM:FC fandom:

One of the only clear memories I have from Red Cross first aid is that if you have someone who's been impaled by a big something - or, I don't know, taken a bullet to the spine - that you don't remove it or go digging around, because you're probably going to do more damage poking by at it than you would leaving it until a qualified medical professional can get to it.

So where's the fic where Erik realizes that maybe pulling that slug out wasn't his brightest idea, and that Charles' paralysis is really directly his fault?

Comments

[muccamukk]

Yeaaaaah.

I always flinch watching that scene.

[healingmirth]

Seriously, just why? It's not like he forgot, in those 3 minutes, what happens when metal moves through human beings.

Maybe he could keep the bullet with him forever to be his new talisman of angst.

[st_aurafina]

Did the bullet even go in? I assumed it was impact-damage only, since they were so careful to talk about the bullet-resistant uniforms.

It's all irrelevant, anyway, the way that Erik tosses him around on the beach like a blanket. They did all that training, but none of it was first aid, apparently.

Love the movie, hate the science and medicine.

[healingmirth]

That... is a good point. I have no idea, actually, and I otherwise would have taken that bit of exposition as any excuse to get them into uniform.

I don't think we ever see Charles's back, and my natural assumption is that if someone gets shot and stays on the ground, that they're bleeding. If not, that makes Charles's eventual announcement that he can't feel his legs seem really very belated. If he's not bleeding (and thus, very clearly Not Okay), shouldn't someone, like, ask what condition he's in? Clearly I need to rewatch.

[st_aurafina]

Re-watching won't make it better - it's as far removed from reality as... a movie about mutant superheroes.

I feel stupid, having this expectation that the writers would do a little research. I mean, it's an X-Men movie. But dude, it would have been nice if they'd spoken to someone with a spinal injury, or someone who treats them. You don't go straight to "I can't feel my legs!"

Maybe they ran out of time.

[healingmirth]

Er, actually, not that I want to be grumpier about this. Hank isn't supposed to be an actual MD, right? At this point he's just got some generalist PhD in Movie Universe Science?

Blargh. It's not like this is the first time a bullet has been fired and something dumb has happened in an x-men movie.

Happy thoughts!

[healingmirth]

Also, it's the 60s! They didn't have any experience treating traumatic injury by then! Er, wait, I'm thinking of Marvel 1602...

[kate]

Ack, I've actually read this! It was a brief 5 things story, maybe 5 things Charles will never tell Erik? Crap, I have no idea who wrote it, though, I will poke around and see if I can find it.