TRUST YOUR RADAR
Honest Advice For Teens and Young Adults from a Surgeon, Firefighter, Police Officer, Scuba Divemaster, Golfer, and Amateur Comedian
By C.B. Brooks, M.D.
Published
by Derby Press at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 by C.B. Brooks, M.D.
All rights reserved.
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Copyright 2012 by C.B. Brooks, M.D. All rights reserved.
Published by Derby Press.
Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
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Disclaimer
This book is designed to provide information. This text should be used only as a general guide and not as the ultimate source of information. The purpose of this book is to educate and entertain. The author and Derby Press shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, medical, or other professional service. If advice or expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Stories are based on actual incidents. Names and details have been altered to protect identities and privacy.
Dedication
To Col, my best daughter – keep your radar turned on and have a beautiful life.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2) I’d Like You To Meet Your Radar
3) Make Friends With Your Radar
Section II – Applications: Key Information For Your Radar
7) Safety in Numbers, The Carrier Battle Group
11) Health – Take Care of Your Machine
Section III – Radar Jammers: Things That Turn Your Radar Down or Off
14) Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction
15) Love, Infatuation, and Marriage
17) It’s Too Complicated For You To Understand
18) Leave It To Us; We Claim To Know Things We Really Don’t
22) The People Pleasing Problem
24) Performance Enhancing Drugs
25) Multitasking, Electronic Devices
30) Defending Honor, Saving Face, Getting the Last Word
33) Going To College, Leaving Home
37) When Radar Jammers Gang Up
Here’s the Idea
Hey – welcome aboard. This adventure is going to be fun and exceedingly practical. You can start implementing these ideas right away; no prior experience, workshops, or membership required. This will not be a droning lecture, tedious study, or cosmic path to salvation. In fact, you may know some of it already, but like most ideas, they’re swirling around in your monkey brain and until someone helps you organize them, it’s hard to know which swirling ideas are right and what order they should go in.
Our goal is to pull those ideas together into a concise framework: so you can make better decisions, avoid problem people, cause less grief from your actions, steer clear of a ton of trouble, and (to use a golf analogy) stay out of life’s major sand traps. There’s no guarantee, but at least you will have heard it once.
I wish someone had told me these ideas when I was starting out. It would have saved me so much aggravation and preserved so many brain cells.
No one thing in particular makes me qualified to lead this expedition. But I’ve had an unusual range of careers, and started to see definite similarities in managing various high pressure situations. These similarities can be very useful to you. My primary career is medical doctor (M.D.), specializing in surgery, specifically orthopedic surgery. We are like carpenters of the human body. We try to reassemble broken bones and spines, repair torn muscles, tendons, nerves, and ligaments.
My particular subspecialty is microsurgery of the hand and arm, which includes reattaching thumbs, fingers, and limbs that have been severed – oops. You can imagine how shocked patients and their families are who stumble into these terrible accidents. Also imagine what kind of doctor you’d want if it happened to you. How about a rushing, stressed out, yelling, bouncing off the walls doc like you see on TV – or would you want someone calm; who checks you over; gives you your options, and proceeds with the best plan for you. I’ll take the second type every time.
While working as a surgeon, I had the opportunity to pursue another career I’d always wanted to do, but never thought I’d have the chance. Once, I was taking care of the local Fire Chief who’d injured his elbow. I happened to mention, ever since I was a kid, how I’d always loved fire engines and the fire department. I was stunned when he offered me a chance to become a volunteer firefighter. It was a dream come true, and began a dual career progressing through: certified firefighter, driver-engineer, aerial operator, lieutenant, captain, fire instructor, underwater dive rescue technician, safety officer, and ultimately assistant fire chief. I still sometimes pinch myself, especially while returning from calls, thinking, “Incredible – I can’t believe they let me drive these things.”
In the fire world, we of course handle fires, but also rescues, medical emergencies, car accidents, hazardous materials incidents, and other disasters humans manage to get themselves into. These are often crisis situations where most people are getting out of there; our job is to size up the scene, protect ourselves, and make a plan to stabilize the mayhem. Again, like the surgical emergency, the goal is to be calm and effective.
Another interest of mine became a career path too. I had always loved the water and took up scuba diving just to be able to see the incredible world under the surface. To become a better and safer diver, I gradually added extra training and became a divemaster, rescue diver, and medical diving specialist. This allowed me to combine scuba and the fire department to start an underwater dive rescue team.
I’ve been lucky enough to dive all over the world with great people and also great white sharks, whales, turtles, manta rays, and other awesome creatures. As you can imagine, any activity performed under a hundred feet or so of ocean can be tricky when things go wrong. Guess what – it’s a similar approach again: preparation, precautions, and a calm decision making process when things unravel.
After being on the fire department for 10 years, the Police Chief approached some of us and asked if we would be interested in becoming reserve police officers (in addition to firefighters). The department would send us to Police Academy at nights and weekends. After completing additional field training within our department, we would have full arrest powers, and supplement the road patrol shifts and specialty details like marine boat patrol, bicycle, surveillance, and field force riot control.
At first I was skeptical, thinking I didn’t want to go out of my way to meet violent crazy people, but this turned out to be a super experience that helped crystallize the ideas in this book. Once again I saw the same theme: humans with a problem, either already out of control or heading that way; we arrive, size it up, protect ourselves, choose and execute a plan to stabilize it. I’m sure you’re starting to see a pattern here.
Some may be asking, “Well how is this going to help me in my everyday life? I maybe have a big crisis once a year or less. My house or even my pants haven’t gone on fire lately, and I haven’t run out of air or sawed off a body part recently.”
Allow me to explain. A concept that struck me during police academy, was that adults in our society have many rights and protections, but young people seem to be left out. Imagine an adult going to work every day and some coworkers thinking it’s fun to knock over his papers, pull his hair, physically push him around, steal his lunch money, and even beat him up after work. You can be certain we, as police officers, would be right over to stop such behavior. However, if it was a kid in school, we might say, “Oh it’s just kids,” or “Let the school deal with it.” You may agree with me that something doesn’t look right here.
So, one of my interests in the police world became teaching a school program on conflict resolution, anti-bullying, drugs and alcohol, and eventually expanded to personal safety, gun safety, and a guide to decision making. The guide is basically the same one we use for emergency incidents, applied to everyday common events and interactions.
We’re going on a journey to come up with a clear approach to deal with big emergencies, little annoyances, difficult people, problem situations, and everyday issues. Along the way we’ll use the same template and illustrate it with fire stories, police stories, surgery stories, underwater scuba stories, and even tales from some of my other kooky interests. These are just my opinions and approach to life I’ve developed over the years. I don’t claim to have all the answers. Throughout the book we’ll draw on wisdom from some outside experts. I hope you like this unique format and find these ideas helpful. I’m betting you will.
“Whoa. Wait a minute.” Some may still be balking, “We’re not superheroes; we don’t want to be superheroes; we’re not the type who handle emergencies well.” OK, fair enough; let me share a secret superheroes don’t like to divulge: Nobody is born with this ability. Shhh. It takes some information and thought beforehand.
The reason it takes some reprogramming, is because we are born with the exact opposite instinct. Our human, mammal brains have developed over millions of years to maximize our survival. When we are faced with danger, our brains naturally release a flood of neurotransmitter chemicals that set off our “fight or flight” response. It’s a good system, especially if a lion is chasing you, but in many modern situations it pays to be able to recognize and dampen its effects.
We can do this by starting to notice the feelings our body produces when the fight or flight response is beginning. Next, if we’ve thought about these types of events beforehand, and considered how we would handle them, we’re way ahead.
No human performs well under new, stressful conditions: whether it’s buying a car, dealing with a crime, or confronting a new peer challenge. But if you’ve thought about steps to resolve a similar problem, or heard what’s worked before for other people, you have a tremendous advantage. Our brains begin to form a mental framework or checklist which can be used to guide us calmly through the encounter, whatever it may be.
Here’s an example. In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 was leaving LaGuardia Airport in New York City when two hefty Canadian geese got sucked into both its jet engines causing the plane to lose all power. Yes – the dreaded “double bird.” Captain Chesley Sullenberger remained cool and successfully glided the plane safely into the Hudson River, saving himself, his passengers, crew, and thousands of people on the ground who could have been killed if the plane crashed into the city. He was hailed as a superhero.
The captain deserves our admiration, but he performed so brilliantly because he had mentally prepared for situations like this beforehand. He may not have prepared specifically for this exact scenario, but he had rehearsed an approach to incidents like these many times before. He had a mental template already in his brain, so when the emergency occurred, he was able to recognize it, dial down his panicky fight or flight brain response (that most of us would have gone wild with), calmly went through his options, picked a plan, and executed it. There was still no guarantee his plan would work, but the chance for success was greatly enhanced by his rehearsed approach to the crisis. This is the type of behavior we will develop for our own day to day experiences.
I hope you enjoy this adventure. Changing yourself and your thinking isn’t automatic. It takes some practice and the courage to challenge some of your long held thoughts, beliefs, and patterns. It definitely can be done because our brains have a wonderful property called plasticity. We can, with some conscious effort, new awareness, and information; change our brain habits and perspective.
We will question some sacred cows, conventional wisdom, and accepted “truths.” Some of you may become defensive; while others may find the journey eye opening. You can change from a person who merely reacts to everything that occurs, bouncing along without a goal or plan and complaining about your bad luck; to a person with the tools and clear vision to help you manage the incident, instead of it managing you.
I’m sure this will pay off by making your life less stressful and more enjoyable. The journey’s worth taking because it’s the only life you have, and you’re the only one living it.
I recommend you read through the sections in order, because they do build on ideas developed in the earlier chapters. I also urge you to laugh along the way while we’re on this mission of self exploration and improvement. One of my unofficial careers, from age 22 on, has been amateur comedian, emcee of various events, and practitioner of the comedic arts. Your amusement is a top priority of mine. I implore you: Don’t forget to have fun!
Chapter 2 – I’d Like You To Meet Your Radar
Your new approach to situations and decision making starts with your inner radar. Imagine you are in the command center of a Navy ship out on the ocean. A large TV screen shows a sweeping image of your ship’s surroundings every second as the radar dish turns in a complete circle, like a video camera scanning out miles toward the horizon. Anything the radar sees – another ship, an iceberg, an airplane in the sky, a giant jumping catfish, or a dangerous enemy missile coming toward you – shows up on your large radar screen. Every second, the radar sweeps the same circle, updating you on your surroundings.
Now, picture yourself inside your own brain. Your brain is the command center for your entire body. In this command center, you have multiple large TV screens. Five of the screens give you information from your five senses. Vision gives you real-time video of your surroundings, far and near, like the Navy ship’s radar. Hearing gives you information on another screen, you can even adjust your head and focus more intently if you detect a sound that interests you. Touch, sensation, vibration, temperature, and positioning information are all collected from your skin, like a huge antenna, sending signals to another command center screen. Taste has a screen too. Smell is not that sensitive in humans, since over time we’ve diminished using it as much as we used to, so it just gets a mini-screen. In dogs and other animals, the smell TV screen in their brains is huge.
Off on the side of your brain command center, other computer monitors are also functioning, but you’re usually not even aware of them. They handle such operations as breathing control, organ system functions, balance and coordination, etc.
That’s impressive, but now picture a whole wall of computers holding all your memories and learned information, these can be associated with the data your senses are collecting, inferring meanings, impressions, and nuances. Your associative powers also include applying cause and effect reasoning and predictions to what you are monitoring. You can formulate answers to questions like, “How is this likely to go?” This makes your brain command center even more impressive than the Navy ship’s.
Consider some examples: The ship’s radar identifies a fast-moving object headed toward you at a low altitude above the sea surface. This is definitely a concern, but is it a dangerous enemy missile or a friendly helicopter? Do you shoot it down or not? More information is needed – so continuous tracking is started. Estimated speed, course changes, known traffic in the area, etc., are investigated. The object stops, hovers, and changes direction, flying away from you. The ship’s command center decides it is a helicopter not posing a threat and the “all clear” signal is given. Radar goes back to its usual scanning mode.
A young kid pours herself a big cup of grape juice, drinks some, and puts the cup on the edge of the table within range of her arms. She then begins to tell you a long story, waving her arms around for dramatic effect. Her radar doesn’t yet have the associative powers or memory bank information linking the position of her cup, to her hand gestures, to the high risk of the grape juice going directly to the floor. Your radar does. You see the cause and effect possibility. Maybe you recall a similar memory when you knocked something over with bad results. Your command center comes up with a plan; you silently reach over and slide the grape juice cup to a safer place, while listening to the animated storyteller.
How about this.
You’re riding in a car with three of your teenage friends. The
driver’s going 80 miles per hour on a narrow road with sharp
curves. One of your friends yells to the driver, “Dude!” Your
ears pick up the sound and combine it with your vision and motion
detectors. While you’re processing, your associative brain cells
judge this as dangerous. Also, the subtle inflection on “dude,”
indicated your friend liked this and was encouraging the driver to go
even faster, as in, “Dude, you’re awesome!” and the driver
cranks it up to 90 mph. Your radar is getting worried and you
correctly sense you’re the only one who feels this way. Succumbing
to peer pressure, you keep quiet. The next day, same situation, but
now the “dude” is spoken somewhat differently. Today the “dude”
sounds negative, like the speaker disapproves, as in, “Dude, what
are you doing?”
You agree with this and blurt out, “Yeah dude
are you out of your mind you’re going to kill us!”
Get the idea? Our human brain is an exceptional command center. Our radar takes in sensory information from our surroundings; processes it based on subtle cues and nuances; compares the scene to past experiences and outcomes stored in our memory banks; produces a conclusion, and decides on a response.
Here’s a straightforward common event everyone can appreciate. You are outside on a summer night. Your skin nerves sense something new touch down on your arm. The information is sent to your brain command center. The data is evaluated for how much pressure is being applied to the skin, over what amount of surface area, and then associated with your databank of similar experiences, combined with the likely possibilities that could occur in this environment, and the conclusion is formed: “This is probably a mosquito, and I’ve had unfavorable experiences with these biting pests, and I’d like to avoid another one.” Instantaneously, your other arm is instructed to lift and rotate into position and your hand slaps the spot with a measured amount of force sufficient to kill the mosquito but not damage you. At the same time your visual sensors (eyes) are rotated and directed to the area to get more information, to see if your conclusion was correct, and if your action plan was successful. If it wasn’t, the brain command center evaluates the new information, and the process quickly starts again until the situation is resolved.
Pretty amazing stuff for a 3 pound grayish lump of Jell-O contained in our skulls.
Chapter 3 – Make Friends With Your Radar
Our human radar has developed over millions of years to allow us to respond to our environment. Our brains are where we experience the world. Nobel prizewinning neuroscientist Eric Kandel stated, “All mental processes, even the most complex psychological processes, derive from operations of the brain.”
Dr. Michael Craig Miller summed it up in Newsweek: “Your brain is where you live.”
Harvard Professor Steven Pinker wrote in his book, How the Mind Works, there is “Overwhelming evidence that the mind is the activity of the brain.”
Yes, this collection of about 100 billion nerve cells combines to produce consciousness, intelligence, self-doubt, self-control, personality, language, “the soul,” creativity, imagination, emotions, empathy, morality, opinions, and beliefs. It is where the action is. It is where your radar command center is.
Let’s take a closer look at our brain radar. We already know about our body’s systems to gather and report information; then our brains evaluate, process, and apply meanings. Dr. Pinker says our brains make predictions based upon what we have experienced in the natural world through networks of “pattern associators.” This is the memory bank our command center consults when faced with a situation. Have I experienced anything like this before? Have I heard or read about a similar event? What can I reference to see what worked successfully in the past? What didn’t work? Can any of my past training help here? All this analysis and computation goes on in the brain. We experience the world and ourselves with our brains.
Even though our brains are remarkable, they are not perfect. Now we can begin to see why. Sensory input from the environment is picked up and sent to the brain; we all do fairly well with that part. If it’s a common occurrence, like the mosquito incident, we handle it smoothly. But if it’s an unusual event, something we haven’t dealt with before – like a crime, a fire, opening your first investment account, or landing your jet in the river – our memory banks may not have any comparable history information to reference, or our pattern associators may pick the wrong scene to compare it to. This can lead to jumping to a wrong conclusion and bad decisions.
This is why it’s important to get to know your personal radar. Take a step back; think of some past events and your response. Has your radar ever picked up a signal and processed it with a wrong conclusion and response? How about that time you freaked yourself out when the wind was blowing against your window and you totally misinterpreted it as a burglar, or a vampire. How about the time you thought someone was insulting you so you started a war and it turned out they weren’t even talking to you. I’ll bet you know someone who overreacts all the time and flies off the handle; or someone who under-reacts to real threats and becomes a victim over and over. By starting to be aware of how you process information and respond to outside events, you’ll be getting to know your radar.
Throughout this book, we will be loading new information into your brain memory bank. Information about scenes you will soon encounter in adolescence and adulthood. You or your peers may have already experienced some and handled them badly. It’s a big reason why your phase of life is so tumultuous; no one’s given your memory banks the straightforward, clear information you need to reference, and your pattern associators are jumping to the wrong conclusions. It’s like every generation repeating the same mistakes; hitting into the same big golf sand traps.
Let’s try to remedy this. Just by reading the information and stories in the upcoming chapters, you’ll be stocking your command center’s memory bank and giving your pattern associators a fighting chance of choosing a good path.
POLICE STORY – One hot afternoon on police road patrol, I was dispatched along with another officer to a domestic disturbance. This means a fight between people living together and is well-known as one of the most dangerous calls you’ll get. There is usually a history of abuse, emotions are running high, the abuser knows you’re coming and can set an ambush trap, and sometimes the abused victim can attack police while we’re arresting the aggressor.
Our two police
cars arrived at the same time and we were met by an agitated,
shirtless young man (just like you see on real TV cop shows) in front
of the building. I began to ask him what was going on while my
partner stood off to the side. After a few questions and increasingly
excited answers, the guy started toward me. My partner already had
his TASER X26 [1]
electric incapacitation gun drawn, and dispensed a whopping dose of
Edison’s medicine. The man, like electricity, went to the ground,
and I hurriedly handcuffed him.
“Why” you ask, “did he taze
this guy?”
“Well,” my colleague said, “he was getting
froggy.”
What did he mean by that? What was the officer’s radar telling him that made him light this guy up? He correctly saw subtle changes that showed this scene was about to escalate and get even more dangerous. The shirtless man’s eyes started to dart back and forth, his jaw clenched, his breathing started to puff (officer’s TASER gets drawn and turned on); the man’s right knee started to twitch and shake and then his right fist began clenching and unclenching (red dot laser sight aimed at lad’s buttocks); then the scoundrel makes his move at me (electrons successfully delivered). This guy was going to fight. So the cop stabilized the situation before it spun out of control and got me hurt. His eyes saw the events, compared them to his brain command center memory bank, associated a pattern of imminent kung fu fighting, and decided on a plan utilizing enough speed and force to resolve it without permanent injury to anyone. Thank you very much.
The officer’s
brain radar knew froggy when he saw it. Now, police sergeants and
lieutenants have fits when you do this and cannot clearly articulate
what you saw and why you acted. They’re thinking ahead a year or
so, when this case goes to trial, and the arrestee is dressed in a
nice suit, looking like a Rhodes scholar applicant, and his lawyer is
asking, “Officer, what possessed you to harass my client, who by
the way was working on a cure for cancer, when you wantonly smote him
with the power of a thousand suns?”
“Well, he was getting
hinky.”
Oops, wrong answer.
Get to know your radar. Become aware of what it’s seeing and how it’s working.
Do this fun exercise, start today: Begin observing your interactions with others. Identify the data your senses are accumulating. Picture the associations being evaluated in your brain. See if the conclusion reached looks correct and if your planned response looks appropriate. Ask yourself, “Are there other explanations for this? Are there other ways I can deal with this?” The more you start to become aware of the command center’s process operating, the more you’ll be getting to know your radar.
Also, start to notice your body’s response to stress. Identify what you feel when you start to get angry. Does your jaw clench, heart start to pound and beat faster, face and ears feel flushed or hot, tightness in your chest or abdomen, knee or leg start to tremble? Once you become aware of your particular responses, you can better recognize when they are appearing, and notify your command center that this encounter is heading out of control. With awareness, practice, and some tricks we’ll learn, your command center can dial it down and enact a better response plan.
* * *
[1] TASER © is a registered trademark of TASER International Inc., registered in the US, All rights reserved.
OK troops, so far we’ve learned each one of us possesses a potentially powerful radar system with its command center in our brains. It’s like the radar on a Navy ship but even better because it has the ability to associate clues, reference a memory bank of experience, interpret subtle differences, come to a conclusion, consider response options with probable future outcomes, enact our response, evaluate the immediate results, and be ready to recalibrate and start the process again if we don’t like the way events are unfolding. Pretty good equipment, I daresay.
Please note – this is important – your radar is not a vague “intuition” or nebulous “sixth sense” many people like to babble about. It may feel like that sometimes, but now we know it’s our brain functioning. Your radar gives you these thoughts based on the sum total of subtle cues it is picking up in your environment.
It’s not a fortune teller; although someone who makes their living predicting your future with some “magical powers” is using their radar to size you up, ask you some leading self-revealing questions, process that information, and come up with some “amazing” insights and predictions they’re betting you want to hear and are willing to pay them for. The charlatan fortuneteller has trained his or her radar and trusts it enough to make it into a career! You too can learn to refine and trust your own personal radar.
The wild thing about our human radar system is it has a volume control and an on-off switch.
That fortuneteller, when you walked in, turned her radar up to maximum gain or volume to evaluate you and provide a personalized product you’d buy. Others, like the “slackers” or “losers” you know, who bounce from one bad situation to the next, have “bad luck” or can’t “catch a break,” most likely have their radars turned down to a low level.
Most people, including you, may temporarily turn their radars down or completely off through alcohol, drugs, or some other surprising ways we’ll explore later in Section III. While radar is off, many stupid human tricks can occur, resulting in truckloads of regret, embarrassment, accidents, misery, and sometimes life altering disasters. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself and temporarily turn your radar down, but it will be with the new awareness you’ll develop from this book. You can choose when, where, and most importantly with whom you turn your radar down and by how much.
Recognition of this volume feature and some basic precautions can remarkably improve your life’s journey.
Trusting your radar comes first from identifying it. We’re well on our way there. Second, it’s developing a situational awareness of your surroundings and interactions. Start to actively notice your environment, people, traffic, dogs, a pothole in your path, a piano hanging from a rope above your head. Notice subtle cues people are giving off – is it a well-dressed older woman with a cane blocking your way, or of group of teenagers wearing gang colors? A friendly wiener dog on a leash, or a pit bull with eyes locked on yours and emitting a low growl? These are clear, but now consider the vast spectrum of in between signals we can pick up in our everyday lives. When recognized, they all add up to forming our size up of a situation. Start to recognize that “inner feeling” you have – it’s your radar. Start to use it, test it, and trust it more.
POLICE STORY – In Police Academy (the real one, not the movie – although there were definite similarities), one of our old instructors told us to get attuned to our feelings and not ignore them. “If the hair on the back of your neck starts to go up – believe it.” That’s your radar picking up some real clues this situation is not right. You can’t say exactly why yet, but there’s potential danger. You’re listening with your whole body. So when you get that feeling, trust it, and here’s your checklist plan: backup, “make some distance” between you and the threat, call for help, be ready to protect yourself.
SURGERY STORY – Late in my six years of surgery residency training after medical school, I was fortunate to receive the nickname “Mr. Lucky.” This title was bestowed on me not because of my social life (as I had wished), but because a high percentage of my microsurgical reattachment operations actually worked. (Shock and awe.)
I humbly accepted the name but I thought silently to myself, “Aye laddie, but you make your own luck.” I didn’t realize at the time, but my good success rate was because I was using my radar. I wasn’t reattaching every part just because it was lopped off, but instead was selecting the amputated parts to reattach that had a decent chance of survival and would be of benefit to the patient. Everything else was “in the bucket.”
You could call this “experience” or “surgical judgment” or “blind outhouse luck,” but I’ve come to realize it was my brain’s radar – the sum total of sensory inputs, awareness of circumstances, matched against memory information of what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t, and choosing a reasonable behavior course that has a good prospect for success. So, it turns out, you do make your own luck by having your radar on and trusting it.
FIRE STORY – About 8:00 PM one night, lightning hit a single story house and started a fire in the attic. No one was home; so the fire spread. Neighbors noticed smoke coming from the eaves and attic vents and called 911.
The first in engine company pulled a hose line, crawled in through the front door, pulled down some ceiling with pike poles, and started to fight the attic fire. Next in companies appointed an incident commander (I. C.), struck a second alarm, set up a water supply, and all the other routine parts of our residential structure fire checklist. More engines arrived and happily received assignments. Firefighters love a chance to put the wet stuff on the red stuff.
To mostly everyone, this looked like a smooth scene, a “good fire.” The incident commander had his radar on full; while most other firefighters had what we call “tunnel vision”: they were focusing intently on their task, doing what they love, and not seeing the big picture. Then the I.C. called an evacuation of all fire personnel from the building. He shifted from an interior fire attack, to an exterior “surround and drown.”
Some of the crews were grumbling, “Why did he pull us out? He’s a chicken. He’s ruining our fun.” The I.C. trusted his radar. He noticed subtle clues that the whole attic was ready to ignite (a flashover) and the roof was in danger of caving in. Clues like the escaping smoke becoming faster, more turbulent, pressurized, changing color from black to brownish caramel color indicating the wood trusses and joists were now burning and weakening. This information was in his radar memory bank and the pattern associated with it was not good. Collapse is one of the most common causes of firefighter fatalities. The I.C. saw this coming and correctly decided to change tactics.
SURGERY STORY – A surgeon told me early on: “The slowest way to operate is to rush.” I saw this play out a few years later. I was assisting another surgeon on an anterior approach to a patient’s fractured spine. We were going through the front of the abdomen to reach the broken vertebrae of the spine because it would give us a better view. In surgery, “If you can’t see it – you can’t fix it.”
The main surgeon liked to operate fast and prided himself on amazing skin to skin (opening incision to closing stitch) times. We were working our way down to the spine adeptly, mobilizing structures and retracting them safely out of the way, but there was one tight area still blocking our view. The rushing doctor reached the tip of his curved Metzenbaum scissors behind the tight attachment and gave a tiny little snip to free it. We were immediately greeted with – you guessed it – a geyser of bleeding you could hear.
The operation stopped in its tracks until this complication was controlled. We eventually managed it with sponge sticks and vascular clamps and stitches to repair the injured blood vessel, but it was a heap of unnecessary drama and a potential disaster for the patient. Fortunately, the rest of the operation went as planned and the patient recovered.
The primary surgeon had his radar turned way down; he was focused on getting to the spine quickly and setting a new land speed record. With his radar on low, he violated an unofficial Law of Surgery: If you ever cut anything you can’t see, it will bleed like stink.
Now that we’re
getting familiar with our personal radar, it’s time to explore some
approaches to decision making. Humans are a successful species
because we are social mammals. As neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas says,
“A bunch of gregarious apes.”
It’s true. How else do you
explain a parade? I don’t see other species having them.
“Look
at us. We’re walking. Everybody wave.” Nice.
Because our success as a species stems from cooperation, interaction, and specialization in different roles; we can’t avoid having contact with each other. These interactions can be positive and mutually beneficial, neutral, or have negative consequences for us. Humans are capable of wonderful acts to help each other, and routinely take advantage of and hurt one another. Our radar can assist us in telling the difference.
A decision making template will help us choose a good course of action in difficult circumstances. I’ll present two different styles. You can interchange, or pick the one you find easiest to use. The first is modified from the Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders curriculum written by Dr. Ron Slaby, Ph.D. I learned this from part of the school course I taught as a policeman. Dr. Slaby developed this course to help students resolve conflicts, avoid violence, and make better decisions.
The decision making template is: First, size up the situation and stay cool. Second, how do I want this to go, what’s my goal. Third, identify some options. Fourth, pick the best one and act on it.
Let’s go through these. Step one, size up and stay cool. Scene size up is done on all our fire, police, and medical calls. It’s our initial scanning of the situation. What do I see, what’s going on? Radar on full. The best size ups are done unemotionally. Train your brain to stay cool and avoid the impulse to spring into action, which, due to the way our brains are wired (fight or flight), may be the wrong action. Overcoming this urge to automatically act takes practice. We’re reprogramming our brain to quiet our primitive cave dweller mechanism.
Here are some tricks I’ve picked up along the way. When arriving at a call, a fire captain used to routinely step out of his engine and grab hold of the silver eagle atop the big, shiny bell on the front bumper, and force himself to look over the big picture first. His crew had standing instructions to meet at the bumper, and then after his scan was complete, he’d calmly give out assignments and call in his size up on the radio. It could be a raging inferno with victims hanging out every window, and his crew would be calm and collected, resisting the urge to run off and start freelancing in an uncoordinated fashion.
In the medical world we have the ABC’s of patient care. No matter how horrendous and spectacular the injuries, start with the same sequence: airway, breathing, circulation and bleeding control. In some teaching hospitals, everyone runs to cardiac arrests, “It’s a code!” “Code blue!” “Code red!” “Airway team!” “Maelstrom!” “Panic attack!” I prefer the much more composed motto: In a cardiac arrest, take your own pulse first. You’ll be a much more effective participant, and better achieve our goal of sizing up the event in a cool, detached manner.
“But, but, won’t
I be wasting precious time? Egad!”
It’s OK. Repeat, OK. The
few seconds you use will be well worth it. Think back over the last
year. How many situations demanded absolutely immediate, no thinking
responses from you? I’m pretty sure it’s zero to maybe one.
Probably zero.
Step two, what do I want to get in this situation, what’s my goal here. You’ve done your calm size up. You have a general idea of what’s going on. Now, what outcome is best for you. How do you want the situation to play out. How do you want it to go. In deciding this, remember to be your own best friend and take care of your needs first. Some may ask, “Well isn’t that selfish?” No, it isn’t. There is no law that says you have to sacrifice yourself or fight every battle alone. Keeping yourself safe is priority one. If you want to go out of your way for others, that’s fine as long as it’s your decision based on clear thinking. You don’t have to always save and please everyone – it’s impossible anyway. Don’t be a doormat, or become a victim, or a burned-out superhero.
Step three, identify some options to achieve my goal. You don’t have to spend forever coming up with a comprehensive list, but try to think of at least two options. That way you’re avoiding tunnel vision. One option may be action oriented. The other may be passive, such as staying put and gathering more information, or calling for more help.
Step four, pick your best option and act on it. Your intelligent radar can help you here because it’s been gathering clues, processing them, and consulting your memory bank pattern associator in your brain command center to see what may have worked in a similar case in the past. Once your plan is underway, do an occasional progress report. If your plan is getting toward the goal you chose, great, carry on. If not, re-evaluate with a new size up, goal, options, and plan.
Now you have a template, a framework, a checklist – call it whatever you like. It’s a way to organize your thoughts and improve your life. Some are probably groaning, “That process is going to take forever. I don’t have all day.” At first it may take a while, but with repetition becomes almost automatic and fast. Situations that are similar go even faster because you’re more attuned to your goal, available options, and what’s worked. It’s also time well spent because it helps avoid jumping at the first wrong reaction and then spending hours trying to correct your mistakes.
Remember the rushing surgeon? What if he paused and did a calm size up. “Huh, this tissue is tight and blocking our view. How do I want this to go. I want to free this up safely so we can see the spine. Options: cut it and hope for the best; spread and dissect around the sides and see if it can be moved; identify it, and if it’s not an important vessel, tie it off and then divide it. Pick the best one.” Personally, I’d go with the second option.
Our other decision making template comes from the underwater world of scuba diving. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors, Rescue Diver Manual, contains a great short saying to help us when we encounter trouble: “Stop, breathe, think, act.”
When something unexpected happens or goes wrong underwater, our primitive human response is to shoot to the surface like a Poseidon missile launched from a submarine. Unfortunately, our human lungs don’t like this because the air we inhaled at depth was compressed by the weight of the water we’re under. As we do the rocket trick, that air expands rapidly – bursting from our lungs into our bloodstream, sending air bubbles to parts of our bodies where they weak havoc. The Arterial Gas Embolus, resulting from a rapid ascent, is a leading cause of diver injury. That’s why divemasters and instructors spend much of our time watching divers for signs of trouble, and literally holding them down while trying to resolve the underlying cause of their panic. Stop, breathe, think, act. Short, catchy, easy to remember, and effective.
Let’s check it out some more. Step one: Stop. This is where we start our calm size up; let’s see what’s happening here. It’s like the fire captain holding the top of the bell; just stop and look.
Step two: Breathe, our size up continues. Breathing is important, not just in scuba diving but for all our human land-based activities too. Have you ever noticed that all forms of yoga, meditation, relaxation, and peak sports performance, all make a big deal about breathing. Not just any old type of breathing but the deep, slow, fill your lungs kind. It’s because it’s crucial to calm ourselves and tame the fight or flight circuits we all have. Try it right now. Put your hands on your abdomen. Now slowly breathe in filling your lungs. The large dome shaped diaphragm muscle that separates our chest cavity from our abdominal cavity, should push down forcing your abdomen out against your hands. That’s right, your stomach pushes out when you inhale fully. Pause and slowly exhale. Feel the pressure against your hands recede. Now you’re really breathing. This is the kind we want. It helps us stay calm and cool, especially in tense situations. Rapid shallow breathing (hyperventilation) is associated with panic. If your radar notices this kind of breathing or other signs of stress, anger, or nervousness welling up inside you – stop, breathe – the good kind: slow, abdominal, full breaths. With practice, this is definitely in your control.
Stop, breathe; next, step three, think. Think of our goal and some options. Step four: Act, pick the best option and do it. Stop, breathe, think, act. This is essentially the same decision making template as the first one, just an abbreviated form.
Let’s do an example and some stories. Put yourself in these scenes and use the steps we learned. Time yourself if you want; see how fast the process can be. Try this: You and your friends are waiting in line at the school auditorium for a special event. Three bigger guys who are known bullies run up and cut in front of you, saying, “What are you gonna do about it?” No teachers are around.
Step one, size up – they’re doing their usual bad behavior, throwing their weight around, and trying to pull you into a fight. Step two, your goal – get a seat in the auditorium and enjoy the show. Step three, consider some options.
Choice
A: Loudly point out how unfair it is that they cut in line; try to
make them go back; get ready to fight.
Choice B: Don’t say
anything; look at your friend, smile, and shrug.
Choice C: Don’t
say anything, but feel put down and get quietly angry for hours.
Choice D: Say, “Hey, we’re glad you made it! We were saving
this spot for you!”
Last step, decide and do the one that’s best for you.
Choice B has the greatest chance of achieving your goal, which is to enjoy the show. Our primitive brains want to jump at choice A because their behavior is clearly unfair, and somebody should teach them a lesson. But that somebody doesn’t have to be you. Your size up is correct; they would love for you to complain so they could punch you in the face. A fight would ruin your day, get you all in trouble, probably get you hurt, and wipe out your goal of enjoying the show. Choice C is a loser for three reasons: it doesn’t change their behavior, you don’t achieve your goal, and it’s unhealthy and stressful for you to be stewing over this for hours. Don’t damage yourself. In 100 years, no one will care. Probably in 20 minutes, no one will care. Choice D, the use of humor, can sometimes be effective for defusing tense situations, but here it’s risky. These guys are known bullies and may look for any excuse to start a fight. Better to save your jokes for the good people.
SCUBA STORY – Usually the water is clear in the ocean currents crossing our coral reefs. This provides good visibility for diving. One day however, the conditions changed and the visibility was terrible, maybe 10 feet maximum. We were on the bottom, swimming along the reef, not seeing much. Even the usual reef fish were hiding. It looked like the ocean was taking a day off; so we started a slow ascent drifting along with the current in the big blue fog, no longer able to see the bottom or the surface.
Without warning, out of the fog came two big shapes. Because they were so close, I felt that startled rush of brain chemicals, “Yikes!” Stop; breathe (good, keep breathing). Think, what’s my goal here. How about stay safe and check this out. Some quick options: A) do the Poseidon missile trick – not good, or B) stop ascending, rotate, and keep looking. Let’s act on choice B.
Slowly the two shapes came back into view. They were two beautiful marlins leisurely circling, making eye contact with me. I studied their shapes and markings trying to remember every detail, and then they swam away into the blue. I regrouped, checked my depth gauge and air, finished my safety stop and surfaced, feeling extremely fortunate to have turned a washout dive into an incredible marine encounter.
I can hear it now – “What if they were sharks?” Not a problem, sharks are very misunderstood. They’re not out to eat us. They think we’re just some other large predators who showed up on the reef. In fact, they’re usually skittish and afraid of our scuba bubbles.
FIRE STORY – “Residential structure fire, smoke showing.” This is the call that gets firefighters’ neurotransmitter brain chemicals cranked up because they know it’s a working fire and victims may be trapped. Since it’s a “real call,” it’s even more important to stay cool and follow our decision template.
The first due fire engine pulled up right in front of the house and the crew saw flames and heavy smoke pouring from the front windows. They jumped out, pulled a hose line, ran past people standing on the lawn, went through the front door and started shooting water. Yeehaa! They eventually succeeded in knocking the fire down.
Good job? Well, not exactly. This scene illustrates what Chief Alan Brunicini, in his book Fire Command, calls the “candle – moth” instinct of firefighters. They did not stop, breathe, think, act. They did not use the size up, what’s my goal, here are some options, decide and execute a plan method. Instead, they saw a flame and flew to it like moths to a backyard light. You may disagree, “Well they put the fire out, what’s wrong with that?” True, but it could have been better.
Consider these variations. As you’re driving your fire engine up, your radar is picking up lots of information: smoke, flames in the front part of the house, people who may have additional information standing around. You’re scanning for a fire hydrant nearby, clues about occupancy like cars or bikes in the driveway, signs of impending collapse or flashover. You drive past the front two corners of the house, so your radar has now seen three sides of the building, and the next in units, such as a ladder truck, can have access to the front.
Stop, breathe; this is your size up. Yell to the people out front, “Is there anyone inside?” If they say yes, your top priority becomes rescue, not fire attack. If they say no and you don’t suspect there are trapped victims, then your goal is to put the fire out safely, preserving as much of the house and contents as possible.
How about some options. You could go through the front door like the “moths” did, but the problem is our fire hoses, especially with fog nozzles, deliver a combination of water and air. This tends to push the smoke and fire throughout the house, even the uninvolved parts. So, if it’s readily accessible, a better choice is to “attack from the unburned side.” Bring your hose around back of the house and make entry there. That way when you get to the flames in the front rooms, you’ll be pushing the fire and smoke out the front, preserving the unburned rear of the house. The second option looks better. Decide on it; radio in your size up and plan; ask for more help, and go fight the dragon. Now you’re using your intelligent radar, not your moth brain.
POLICE STORY – A slow day, no crime to fight or evil to suppress; nobody’s misbehaving. Finally, you’re sent to a traffic accident involving a truck and car, no reported injuries. As you turn the corner, you see a tanker truck and a car crunched together. The car door is open and a person is sprawled on the ground. The truck driver’s climbing down from his cab, waving at you. You shift into superhero mode and accelerate right up to the crash and position your police car to protect the person on the ground. You’re thinking, “Those dispatchers are so stupid, this is not a fender bender, this is a real scene!” You jump out, holding your radio calling for more help. The truck driver is running toward you waving some papers and yelling in a foreign language. Then he collapses onto the pavement and you feel dizzy and nauseous like you’re going to zook up your burrito lunch.
What’s going on here? This is a hazardous materials incident. The truck is hauling some dangerous chemical, “ethyl-methyl-death,” leaking out a valve the car hit. That’s what the driver was trying to tell you before he fell out, and that’s what those diamond shaped placards indicate on the four sides of the truck. Ouch, this is a sneaky one. A good intelligent radar would have helped here.
In the old days of digging coal and precious metals from the earth, miners had no way to know if invisible toxic gases were building up or if there was enough oxygen to breathe in the narrow tunnels they were digging. So they used to bring a small bird, the canary, down into the mine with them. If the atmosphere was getting bad, the canary would keel over in its cage and that would signal the miners to back out of there. Firefighters like to poke fun at their police brethren, calling them “blue canaries,” because they usually arrive first at these scenes, wear blue uniforms, and sometimes keel over.
How could this call have gone better? As you turn the corner, seeing this accident involves a truck, especially a tanker truck, your intelligent radar should be beeping: “Danger.” Stop, right there, far from the scene. Breathe (where the air is still good). Scan for more information: is there smoke or a vapor cloud, is there a visible leak or liquid on the ground, which way is the wind blowing. Many police and fire units carry binoculars to look at the placard markings from a distance. They also carry a book that can identify the material and give recommendations for handling the scene. Think. What do you want to get out of this situation – protect yourself and stabilize the area so more people don’t get exposed and injured. Act. Put your car in reverse and back up if you’re too close. Block the road; use your public address microphone to warn others away, get on the radio and request help.
This incident is big and will take lots of resources to manage. Don’t go the superhero, canary bird route. This will need a special hazmat team, fire, police for evacuation and protective perimeter, emergency medical units, and possibly a special contractor to safely remove the material.
SURGERY STORY – I remember during my years as a surgery resident, we would work incredibly long hours. That’s where the term “resident” came from – because you basically lived in the hospital. We would be inundated with the results of stupid human tricks: fractures, dislocations, shootings, stabbings, falls from heights, car accidents, overdoses, and other misadventures.
When we did get a rest, we’d crawl into our little “on call” room which had a bunk bed, desk and one chair. Over the years we’d stick some amusing cartoons or sayings above the desk with white hospital tape. One of my favorites was a drawing of a person sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, resting a shotgun pointed up, and a nice dog sitting next to him. The caption underneath said simply: “Calm in the face of chaos.” That’s the mindset we wanted to achieve every time the omnipresent beeper went off announcing more carnage. Calm in the face of chaos. Soothing.