The depth of human cruelty is fathomless.

Car vs. Ankle:  Car wins.
Ankle gets snapped open, twisted sideways, and will require surgery.  Car hit-and-ran, leaving Dad to pull his daughter out of the street.  Daughter hyperventilated so hard that we put her on a CO2 monitor and had to consider intubating her so she wouldn’t go alkalotic and shut her brain down.

Fist vs. Mandible:  Fist wins.
The human skull is pretty darn solid.  The elegant, arch-winged mandible floating below it is not.  Combine sufficient force with the correct angle of impact, and the mandible will snap into two.  Or sometimes into three.  While still inside the gums.  The Fist will — if found and arrested — be tried on assault charges.  The Mandible will be fixated (wired shut) for up to 2 months.

Head vs. Gun:  Gun wins.
And the most horrific part of this suicide was not the fact that the large gauge shotgun did its job instantly and completely.  It was the infant in the bouncy seat in the corner, drenched in blood and brain matter, sound asleep when the police arrived.  According to the horrified officers, the room resembled the shipping container scene from the first season of Dexter, but, we can only hope, with no memories to tag along in the infant’s brain for a lifetime.

But, to balance them out was this moment:  Heart vs. Cardioverting Defibrillator:  Defibrillator won.  And when he gasped his first normal breath after his heart returned to a sinus rhythm, I felt like I could finally breath again, too.