There are many lessons to be learned from Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy: The ravages of inequality, for example, or the dangers of a government with too much control over citizens’ lives. But Megan Gething learned more from the Hunger Games than that. Amazingly, the Gloucester, MA teen learned a first aid technique through the book that would ultimately play a role in saving the life of a good friend.
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Megan, 12, was playing with a group of friends outdoors when one of them, Mackenzie George, fell and badly cut her calf. An ambulance was called, but Mackenzie was losing blood fast—until Megan intervened. Remembering a passage from the Hunger Games in which Katniss uses a shirt to stem the bleeding from Peeta’s injured leg, Megan used a pair of Mackenzie’s shorts as a makeshift tourniquet.
The quick thinking worked: Mackenzie made it to the hospital before her blood loss became truly dangerous. “Mackenzie would have lost a lot more blood, and it could have been life-threatening if she hadn’t done what she did,” Mackenzie’s dad Gregory stated. Mackenzie is slated to make a full recovery.
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So next time you read some dystopian YA, take notes. It just might save your life or the life of someone you love.
Featured image courtesy of the Feminist Wire