Stories Across Arkansas
The following are stories collected and submitted by Arkansans related to tobacco use and secondhand smoke. These stories may be about someone who's quit smoking, why someone is passionate about the cause, a coalition's good work, a cancer survivor, etc.
Submitted 1-28-03 Via Email
Anonymous
(The name has been changed to protect the individual)
My story involves 17 y.o. Jane B. who lives in my community. Jane quit school when she was 15. Jane is from a large family of aunts, siblings, and cousins. Most of the adults, older teenagers, and some of the younger adolescents in Jane's immediate and extended family smoke.
Jane is my first success story with my job. I had some materials on tobacco at a preschool health fair. I knew that there would be young mothers there. I shared the dangers of smoking with Jane and some of her family. I told Jane that if she would quit smoking, I would give her an SOS tee-shirt.
Jane is unmarried and has an 8 month old baby. The baby is small for her age. Jane really cares about her baby and I shared the dangers of smoking around the baby. I saw Jane two weeks later and she had quit smoking--she got a tee-shirt!! I saw Jane about two weeks ago (2 months later). Jane is still not smoking and she is pregnant again.
This is not a dramatic story, but a very realistic, everyday story. A story that occurs too often in small Arkansas communities. Jane will have healthier babies by not smoking. I also believe Jane can be an influence on other siblings and cousins that are around her.
Submitted 1-22-03 via Fax
Student
I started smoking when I was 8 years old the first time I stole some cigarettes it was a pack of first class. I smoke the whole pack in that one day needless to say I was sicker than a dog the next day but I thought I was so cool with that pack. Not long after that I started to lose weight and get sick a lot. But after about a month the immediate side effects went away. But the long-term effects came. I got slower, weaker, my eyesight got bad I really did not care thought cause I was cool. 6 months ago I decided to go to the NAVY. I realized that would not be possible if I was still smoking. So my friend Anothy and I went to Mrs. Storm are school counselor and we hatched a plan. The idea was to slowly cut back at the rate of 1 or 2 a week and on December the 6 I we were tobacco free and I have been that way since. The carvings still come but when they do I think of all the people I would be letting down if I did smoke again. I now plan to join the navy and live my life as a tobacco free American.
Submitted 12-13-02 via Email
Jimmy Parks RN, Outreach Coordinator
Arkansas Children's Hospital Burn Center
I am a nurse and I have worked in the Burn Center at Arkansas Children's Hospital for almost twelve years. I have seen a lot of things that have influenced the way I think and feel about smoking. Here are a few:
- I helped care of a 3 year old boy who set his shirt on fire trying to smoke a cigarette just like Mom and Dad. The mother told us that he had been caught doing the very same thing just a few weeks earlier and that she had spanked him. He only learned that he didn't want to get caught smoking because this time he was hiding in his bedroom trying to smoke. He was trying to be like his parents. We washed him thoroughly every day for a few weeks, he had skin grafts done and will have scars on his chest for the rest of his life.
- I helped care for a 2 and a 3 year old who had been playing with a cigarette lighter when they burned their house down. Both had severe respiratory problems because of the smoke in the housefire. They were saved by volunteer firefighters but will be scarred for life. They were both in the hospital for months--wounds washed every day. Parents and Grandparents (all living in the house) smoked. Lighters and matches were all throughout the house--easily accessible to the kids.
- I helped care for another 3 year old boy who set his mother's bed on fire while she slept in it. They were both burned--the child will be scarred the mother permanently disfigured. The child's grandmother told us, "Those kids have always been fascinated with fire. They get a big kick out of lighting my cigarettes for me."
- An older lady (we have the only Burn Center in the state so we treat children and adults) was brought to us because she dropped her cigarette on her shirt. She had third degree burns on her face, chest and arm and had serious inhalation injuries. She died from this burn weeks later. She had a stroke some years before and was partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Her family said that she has always smoked and that they helped her smoke now. They would give her a cigarette and light it. She could not hold the cigarette well at all however. This practice had gone on for some time before she finally dropped this cigarette on her shirt which started the fire. They said she often dropped her cigarettes like that. "Usually it just fell on the floor." "It fell in and burned through her pocket one time and just fell on the floor."
- We just sent home a man who had come to us because his partner was smoking a cigarette while he was fueling his car. He was burned over 30% of his body and will have severe scars. This is one of the most common types of injury we see.
- A burned baby was seen by us because her mother had dropped a cigarette on the child. She was carrying the baby and smoking a cigarette.
- An older gentleman was brought to us from a residential facility where he had been allowed to smoke in the courtyard despite the fact that he was not always coherent. For a smoker, he lived a long life but this time he put his cigarette in his shirt pocket because he was finished with it. His shirt caught on fire and he was severely burned from the chest up. Older people don't fair well with severe burn injuries. He died several days later. People who die from burns usually don't die the day they get burned unless it is the smoke from the fire that kills them. This is a long, slow painful way for someone to die.
- A man in his 20's was brought to us because he fell asleep (passed out
drunk) while smoking a cigarette. His pillow caught fire. He had one hand behind his head so he was severely burned on most of his head and one arm. While washing his face the next day, I easily removed his nose which the fire had destroyed. He survived but lost his face and arm. While being drunk played a role in this, we know that if someone smokes and they drink, they're going to smoke and drink.
More scary is the fact that if someone smokes and if they sleep, they're going to smoke and sleep--eventually. While working with firefighters to teach burn prevention and fire safety, I've learned that every firefighter I know can tell you about fires where people killed themselves smoking their last cigarette at home. Smoking causes more deadly house fires than anything else--by far! We've treated many people burned in fires that started from cigarettes. Arkansas has one of the highest fire-related death rates in the country every year. We also have one of the highest rates of smoking. It's directly related as far as I can tell.
From what I've seen, if you have a cigarette in your hand, you have fire in your hand. People who smoke everyday are playing with fire everyday. If you play with fire everyday, you're going to get burned sooner or later. It may not be as bad as some of those we see in the Burn Center but anyone who's smoked very long will tell you they've burned themselves with their own cigarette or match or lighter. Worse yet is that people who smoke everyday are teaching their kids that fire is no big deal and that you can put fire in your face and up around your head everyday, all day and that's okay. Most of the kids we work with who were playing with fire come from homes where their parents smoke. Not only do they see that unsafe use of fire every day but they see lighters and matches lying around as if they were books, pencils or toys.
These are just a few examples. For every story above there are at least several if not tens of identical stories in Arkansas every year. These patients have to have their wounds washed everyday while they're awake no matter how old or cute they are. The average length of stay is around ten days with some patients staying weeks or months. It costs well more than $1500 a day to treat them--whether they pay for it or not. These are totally preventable injuries.
That's why I think smoking stinks. I also think I heard that cigarette smoking might be related to cancer or some other health problems.
SCHEDULE THE FIRE SAFETY HOUSE OR A BURN TREATMENT CLASS AT http://www.archildrens.org/safety/safe.html OR FOR FREE PREVENTION MATERIAL CALL 501-364-KIDS
Submitted 12-12-02 via Email
Anonymous
Sometimes, something as insignificant as an ink pen can open a door to encourage a smoker to quit.
While checking out at the grocery store, the checker didn’t have a pen to use so borrowed my SOS pen. She inquired about the message on the pen and I told her about our program. She stated she was a smoker and wanted to quit but felt she needed NRT help. I told her about our future plans for the Tobacco Cessation Quite Line.
I gave her the pen as a reminder. |
