When Doll sees that Dix is bleeding badly from his wound, she gives him... aspirin! Aspirin would only increase the blood loss, as it thins out the blood! I wondered for a moment whether they weren't aware of that back in 1950, but I figure the audience back then also knew the effect that it would have on poor Dix.
shareDoll is not very bright, but just about every character has flaws and makes mistakes: all too human! I like the mixture of brains and dumbness, of good impulses and evil, light and dark.
shareDoll was a bimbo, and may have inadvertently contributed to Dix's death by giving him aspirin.
shareI wondered the same thing.
shareDoll was good-natured but dumb. She thought aspirin, the universal balm, would help his gunshot wound. Even for her this seems paralyzingly stupid, but that's what she thought would help. Also, we actually don't know whether Dix took it. She went to get it but we never learn if he takes one or not.
I don't think they understood all the effects of aspirin in 1950. It wasn't even understood how or why it worked as a painkiller. But even if Doll gave Dix an aspirin or two I doubt it would have made much difference to his survival. One way or another he'd have bled to death, thanks to his own stubbornness in refusing to have himself patched up. Taking a couple of aspirins would hardly have had a significant effect on a wound like Dix's.
I had forgotten about that aspirin reference until I read your post. Doll is not the brightest bulb but, to be fair, I don't think most people during that time were aware of the blood thinning nature of aspirin. She probably thought to get him aspirin because it was the go-to drug for pain relief. Everyone had some in their homes.
I did a little research and discovered the following: while it was first observed in the 1940s and some doctors were already recommending it as a blood thinner, actual testing to study the anti-clotting properties of aspirin did not take place until the 1970s.
I had wondered how Dix could have bled out after he says he wasn't badly injured. Now it makes sense.
Except for Emmerich and perhaps Mes. Emmerich, none if the characters were educated. I also get the impression that basic information about health was not widely available to the public. Poor Doll, she did seem hapless, "I had a gun but someone must have stolen it."
share