For educational purposes I am doing a working placement in an Edinburgh hospital, in the Science department. To get inside the building, you need to go through a door which is located immediately in front of staircases up and down, which are rather steep. I work on the third floor, but for some of the experiments I need to go to the main hospital, which can be entered through the basement. The first few times I needed to get to the main hospital I was accompanied by some one, because it is quite difficult to find your way in such a large building.

Enter our hero: my supervisor, 40 years old and doctor in medical biology. He always considered it to be “great fun” to slide down the banister of the stairs leading to the basement. I asked him if he didn’t think this a bit dangerous, considering that the door was also used as entrance by patients. He said that, yes, it probably was a bit dangerous, but hey, it had never gone wrong before, so why should it go wrong now, right? Wrong, as he was to discover soon. As I mentioned before, the staircases were quite steep here, so once you were gliding down that banister, you were not able to stop yourself until you were at the end. My supervisor jumped on the banister and slid down as planed. What was not planned was that he lost control somewhere along the way. Luckily no patients came through the entrance, but unfortunately for my supervisor, that door didn’t open by itself, so he smacked Wile E. Coyote like into it. Considering that the same thing happened to someone else a week earlier, I’d say it was pretty stupid.

Submitted on 04/05/2006

Submitted by: Anna Johnson
Reference:

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Thanks, Anna! I always get a good laugh out of some smug know-it-all doctor or lawyer or captain of industry type who toss all common sense to the wind in the name of a bit of fun. They pull it off a few times, and they're thinking "it CAN'T happen to ME"! Ah, but when it DOES happen, it's extra funny! Yes, Wile E. Coyote WOULD be proud of this jamoke! :-) I'll take this as a PA!

Sheryl said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Thanks, Anna, just goes to prove there's a child inside all of us. I'm staying neutral on this one for the time being. Let's see what the other Moderators say.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention

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