I went for my yearly -- or almost yearly, well ... year-and-a-halfly, sometimes longer, if I really think about it, physical exam. I had to give a few viles of blood, and the phlebotomist (who was probably a vampire because what's the problem with taking an extra vile here or there and sipping throughout the day -- oh, and in case you didn't know, that old wives' tale about vampires and daylight is just that, an untrue old wives' tale) missed the vein and moved the needle a little to my left, then shoved it clear through and pulled it back out a little, finally getting some rich, red elixir.
Now, that took all of maybe a minute and a half. I'm trying to imagine this procedure taking a couple hours -- trying to find some vein in the lower arm, the prime injection sites, jabbing, twisting, turning the needle, trying the other arm, moving to the upper arms with a tourniquet attached, jabbing, poking, rotating the rig, and then going on to the back of the hands and the wrists.
After two hours of trying to hook Romell Brown up to an I.V. so that the State of Ohio could humanely kill him, the governor, an ordained minister, stayed the execution for a week, apparently to give Mr. Brown time to heal -- or so that the State of Ohio could hire an experienced intravenous drug user to do the job.
I'm not in favor of the state-imposed death penalty. Due Process of Law is not perfect. Mistakes have been made.
Posted by Bill at September 17, 2009 12:08 PMSeems like, if they're going to keep putting people to sleep with drugs that way, they ought to find a good veterinarian to do the job. Aside from having my heart completely broken, I've never seen that deal go bad. I'm against the death penalty too, but not because it's cruel. Why put the miscreant out of his misery, and dispatch him into the great cosmic unknown? Life in prison without parole is worse that death in a way; in fact, it is a death penalty. Either way, the fiend in question is never leaving except in a big ziplock baggie. I used to be against the death penalty altogether, until they tried the guy you killed Polly Klaus here in California.
Posted by: Kyle at September 18, 2009 12:59 AMI used to be in favor of the death penalty- hello, Ted Bundy's rampage in Florida?- until I realized how inequitably the sentence is given and how meanly it is carried out. That's not punishment, that's torture.
Just my opinion.
Posted by: Lucy at September 18, 2009 09:51 AMIt always amazes me that the prisoner being executed must be in the best of physical health. They don't seem to worry too much about the stress of almost being executed and having to wait another week.
Hope your results were good.
Posted by: Anji at September 18, 2009 04:18 PM