My nose started to bleed in the middle of the night. I felt wet around my nose. Snot? I turned on the light. No! Blood! Not for the first time, and I have heard nasty stories of people bleeding to death in their sleep of a nose bleed.
So off to hospital, who defined a nose bleed like this as "one of the medical emergencies" and after having had a stopper made for this job put up my nose, really quite painful, and staying overnight, a doctor looked up my nose, hoicked off the scab and put his cauterising stick on what he thought was right place.
But the ergonomics were appalling. There is always a feedback form after a hospital visit and I am thinking of saying this:-
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I was sat in a chair which had the arm rests folded down out of reach and they had nothing to grasp with my hands, which I find helpful when being in pain. Too many dentists chairs are like that, but at least they have somewhere to hold your head (the "workpiece") against. In an ENT department the workpiece will usually be the head, but in this case I was asked to lean forwards and tilt my head backwards, so that
unnatural posture, and difficult to hold because my only fixed contacts were my feet and bottom, above that the hips, spine and neck had to be held stiff.
If the Dr treating me had worked standing up, his only fixed point would have been his feet, from there he would have had to hold still his ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, elbow and wrists. Evidently aware of the difficulties he knelt down in front of me, with his bottom on the back of his heels, thus shortening the chain of support. From that posture he did a good job.
In fine mechanical work, the workpiece is firmly supported, sometimes by its own weight, sometimes in a vice, the worker is seated and he has things between him and the workpiece for him to lean against, or rest his elbows or even his wrists on.
Thought ought to be given to this.
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What do you think of it?
Michael Bell