gore story saturday - tales from an OR nurse (a day late)

This a story from my days before i was an OR nurse, but it is gory and deserves to be told. Back in the day i was an air force nurse and i was stationed in spain, at torrejon outside madrid. I arrived at my assignment in november of 1989 and i was a floor nurse for all patients except OB patients. after being in spain for approximately 3 or 4 months, i was working a night shift. I didn't have a way home because i was still carless, so the nurse anesthetist offered me a ride and i accepted with thanks.Jjust as we were about to leave the base, while passing through the ER, we heard there was an accident just outside the main gate and the guardia civil had called for help. Well we left and as we were getting onto the highway we came upon the accident. This guy i'm with decided we should stop and offer help and i agreed.
The accident was a head on collision involving 2 cars about the size of a honda civic and one of those yugos. There was an ambulance or 2 on the scene and there was a body covered by a tarp behind one of them. further back, the one vehicle was flipped over and there was a pair of legs sticking out from under it that reminded me of the wicked witch under dorothy's house after the tornado. And to the front was the little car with a man in the driver's side with the seat thrown back. We ran to him first because he was apparently alive. we got there and the emt from the base was checking his pulse and the man's eyes were open and looking around and then they shut and the emt said he lost his pulse so they attempt to do cpr, but it is useless. The man's ribs were all broken, what's called a flail chest, so chest compressions could not be done and when they tried to breathe for him using the ambu bag, the air came out of the top of his head along with chunks of his brain. It was obvious he was dead even when his eyes were open and looking around, a last reflex before total body shut down.

There were 3 other victims on the scene. The man under the car was actually impaled on his steering wheel and was dead. The woman under the tarp was decapitated and her head was laying in the ditch near the path we had taken from the car to get to the accident. And the last victim was torn out of the car through the roof with such force the roof was wrapped around him like a blanket. I got a decent look at him and the top half of his head was ripped off and the cops didn't even recognize him as a person right away. They thought he was a dog. There was nothing more we could do there so we left. I was in a state of shock for a long time after that. It was worse than anything I had ever seen and I was very afraid to drive there afterwards for several months. Those cars were probably driving 100+ mph when they collided and those people didn't stand a chance. Gives you a whole new appreciation for speed limits.

-end