Opinion
Boston-area Marine veteran, blinded by his masks throughout a fitness center exercise, suffers bruising fall
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Eugene “Ed” Norton, a Korean Battle veteran from Studying, Massachusetts, suffered a number of bruising accidents to his face and head inside his native fitness center after the masks he needed to put on attributable to COVID mitigation measures rode up on his face and obscured his imaginative and prescient — inflicting him to fall.
The accident occurred on Feb. 3, practically two weeks in the past. He’s nonetheless recovering from bruises on his face and head.
Norton, 84, served abroad in the course of the Korean Battle, rising to the rank of sergeant within the Marines. He served the nation proudly from 1955-1963.
Norton defined to Fox Information Digital that he’d simply gotten off an train bicycle (and sure, masks had been required even throughout exercises). He was strolling towards one other exercise machine when he tripped and fell.
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“Throughout my train, my masks had risen up over my nostril and blurred my imaginative and prescient,” Norton mentioned in a cellphone interview.
“I couldn’t see my toes, and I tripped over a scale in my path after which hit my head on a [nearby] exercise machine.”
He was “shocked” by his accident, Norton mentioned.
Marine veteran Ed Norton was injured throughout a fall when the masks he needed to put on inside a neighborhood fitness center (throughout his exercise) moved up on his face and obscured his imaginative and prescient as he was strolling to a different train machine.
(Deirdre Reilly)
A nurse and a physician who occurred to be exercising alongside Norton rushed to his support. Their first activity was to cease the bleeding.
Norton mentioned he was given a bandage and an ice pack that the nurse received from the fitness center’s managers.
Then two trainers “picked me up and received me off the ground,” mentioned Norton. “I actually whacked my head.”
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The physician who attended to Norton instructed him he felt his accidents had been critical sufficient to warrant a CAT scan, which Norton determined to forego.
The Board of Well being in Norton’s city, which is roughly 12 miles north of Boston, voted this previous Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, to rescind the city’s masks mandate for indoor areas.
Ed Norton’s harm occurred the week earlier than, when the mandates had been nonetheless in place. His facial bruising and tenderness linger to today.
Veteran Ed Norton (at proper, in purple jacket) with buddy and neighbor, John Vino, who takes him to church and helps him with errands.
(Deirdre Reilly)
One in every of Norton’s exercise buddies on the town stays furious about his pal’s fall attributable to his masks.
“That is terrible,” the buddy instructed Fox Information Digital. “It’s not how our veterans’ golden years are alleged to go — masked for no good motive. Ed is certainly one of our American heroes and he ought to be handled like one in every single place he goes.”
Simply as Norton’s city has executed, many different municipalities and areas of the nation have been stress-free their masks mandates.
After his years within the Marines, Norton labored as a vp for an insurance coverage firm. He additionally acquired a grasp’s diploma in nursing.
He has his personal opinions on masking.
Masks like these have been a part of American life for the previous two years. Ed Norton is aware of all about it; his accident at a neighborhood fitness center due to a masks mishap has left him with a number of bruises.
(iStock)
“I believe they’re ineffective,” mentioned Norton.
“The kind of masks most of us are carrying just isn’t safety in any respect,” he additionally mentioned. “And these little children carrying them on a regular basis? It’s not proper, and it’s not borne out by science.”
Regardless that the masks mandates in Norton’s city have been lifted now, well being officers within the space nonetheless advocate individuals put on N95, KN95 or surgical masks “whereas in indoor public locations and [that] public conferences be held remotely, besides the place in-person conferences are deemed important,” because the native Patch reported.
Norton, not by the way, remains to be in mourning for his wife of 59 years, Brenda, whom he misplaced to sickness this previous October.
One other view of Marine veteran Ed Norton, with the facial bruises and cuts from his fall. He believes the masks that so many Individuals have needed to put on have been “ineffective.” He additionally instructed Fox Information Digital, “Some individuals get actually dogmatic about masking.”
(Deirdre Reilly)
Norton cared for his wife up till her dying in late October 2021.
Requested how he felt about utilizing his nursing talents and expertise to look after his personal wife whereas she was sick, Norton mentioned merely, “That’s how God works typically.”
Ed and Brenda Norton raised their two sons in Studying. Ed Norton nonetheless lives within the first home he and his wife purchased collectively.
Norton has two grandchildren.
“The kind of masks most of us are carrying just isn’t safety in any respect. And these little children carrying them on a regular basis? It’s not proper, and it’s not borne out by science.”
As his bruises heal, Norton continues to sift via reminiscences of his beloved wife. “’All the time be kinder than essential’ was her saying,” mentioned Norton.
His pals and neighbors appear to be embracing her motto.
A number of are supporting him in his time of grief. As well as, his buddy, John Vino, takes him to church a number of occasions every week and out to lunch.
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Norton had some ultimate ideas on the masking debates which have raged throughout the nation for 2 years — and on the enforced masking in the course of the pandemic.
“They’ve created plenty of panic and destroyed relationships,” he mentioned.
“Some individuals get actually dogmatic about masking,” he additionally mentioned. “I’ve been approached within the grocery retailer for not carrying a masks.”
Norton’s good buddy John Vino instructed Fox Information Digital, “It’s an actual disgrace how Ed received harm. He’s somebody who has at all times hated carrying the masks.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to Norton’s fitness center for remark however didn’t hear again by time of publication.
