Considering The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian world and features a protagonist with a bunch of emotional problems related to her harrowing circumstances, it might be a little difficult to immediately think of something practical a youngster could learn from the novels. However, as survival is a key theme in the novels, there is some practical learning involved. One 12 year-old even recently created a tourniquet for her injured friend after she slipped down a mud bank and cut her leg. And she knew how to do it, thanks to The Hunger Games.
The young lady in question, Megan Gething, said that her friend needed help after slipping down a mud bank next to a metal cofferdam in Massachusetts, leaving a lengthy 10-inch long and 3-inch wide wound on her leg. She quickly thought about what she learned when she originally read the Hunger Games, in which author Suzanne Collins explains how Katniss Everdeen cuts off a sleeve from her shirt and uses a tourniquet for Peeta with the help of an arrow. This is a major difference between the books and the movie, as Katniss saves Peeta's life, but he loses his leg in the book. In the movie, she helps Peeta when he is wounded and he keeps his leg.
In Megan's case, she held clothing against her friend's leg to reduce blood loss. Her friend Mackenzie George definitely did not end up losing a leg, although she did have to have to have surgery at the Boston Children's Hospital, on the off-chance there was muscle or nerve damage. Thankfully, she was fine.
Mackenzie George described the situation in more detail, and if you like hearing about gross injuries and how they occur, her comments to the Gloucester Times are a must-read.
She asked me to go get them (shoes) because I was crawling and jumping in and out of the bank. I tried to get them and slid on the muddy part, and embedded on the side was a piece of metal and I split my leg open.
I'm shuddering just thinking about it. Mackenzie George should probably be thanking her friend for her quick-thinking, as the report also indicates the two girls were with some other sixth graders who kept super helpfully "screaming" after George got hurt. It's true that we learn things from the books and media that we consume, but it's awesome that the young lady learned such a practical piece of advice from something like The Hunger Games. We should all be so lucky (or paying that much attention). Applying this idea, I'm pretty decent at cake decorating. Maybe I should re-watch the movies so as to brush up on my Peeta-like camouflaging skills?
