Play Games, Save Lives

Last November, one Paxton Galvanek walked by a dark alley and noticed a Goomba holding up an innocent citizen. He pulled on his stomping boots, and–

Okay, no. But Paxton Galvanek did actually save the life of a car accident victim thanks to some in-game training he recieved with America’s Army.

“I remember vividly in section four of the game’s medic training, during the field medic scenarios, I had to evaluate the situation and place priority on the more critically wounded. In the case of this accident, I evaluated the situation and placed priority on the driver of the car who had missing fingers. I then recalled that in section two of the medic training, I learned about controlled bleeding. I noticed that the wounded man had severe bleeding that he could not control. I used a towel as a dressing and asked the man to hold the towel on his wound and to raise his hand above his head to lessen the blood flow which allowed me to evaluate his other injuries which included a cut on his head.”

Well, it’s more than I would do, which would probably amount to panicked flailing.

Still, isn’t it nice when video games are reported as saving lives instead of supposedly goading teenagers into a killing spree?