---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I had seen that once before, bleeding…"
description: "\"“I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well—his father had b..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f50/edison-mcdaniels-53238_bloodletting_i-had-seen-that-once-before-bleeding-wat_2377990.jpg"
---

#  I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby…

![“I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well—his father had blasted away the top of his head with a shotgun—and we couldn't begin to stop the bloodletting in that case. "Looking pretty thin down here," I…” quote by Edison McDaniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f50/edison-mcdaniels-53238_bloodletting_i-had-seen-that-once-before-bleeding-wat_2377990.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f50/edison-mcdaniels-53238_bloodletting_i-had-seen-that-once-before-bleeding-wat_2377990.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f50/edison-mcdaniels-53238_bloodletting_i-had-seen-that-once-before-bleeding-wat_2377990.jpg)

> ““I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well—his father had blasted away the top of his head with a shotgun—and we couldn't begin to stop the bloodletting in that case. "Looking pretty thin down here," I hollered when the stuff coming out his wounds was no more than pink salt water. That baby's heart stopped, started, stopped and started a dozen times before it finally gave up the ghost and we pronounced him. I could have read a newspaper through the watery stuff coming out his veins by then.””

[Edison McDaniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edison-mcdaniels/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Witnessing severe trauma highlights the limits of medical intervention and the emotional toll on caregivers.

**In simple terms:** Medical limits and emotional strain.

Key Takeaway

Recognize professional boundaries.

Themes

medicine trauma mortality empathy

Mood

somber empathetic

Type

clinical reflective

When to use this quote

- emergency care
- training
- mental health support
- debriefing sessions

Key Concepts

ethics psychology clinical practice

Questions to Reflect On

- How can caregivers process repeated loss?
- What support systems aid resilience?

A Different Perspective

Medical staff may feel powerless despite effort.

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[Bloodletting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bloodletting/) [Fitness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fitness/) [Looking pretty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/looking-pretty/) [Medicine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/medicine/) [Salt water](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/salt-water/) [Surgery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/surgery/) [Thriller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thriller/)

## Related quotes

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> [“..each bloodletting hastens the next, and as the value of human life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated, the unimaginable becomes more conceivable.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-clinton/each-bloodletting-hastens-the-next-and-as-the-value-of-human-life-is/)

[Bill Clinton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-clinton/)

> [“Esther Duflo, a professor at MIT with a strong French accent, likens all this research on development aid to medieval bloodletting.6 The once popular…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/esther-duflo-a-professor-at-mit-with-a-strong-french-accent-likens/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

> [My family left Afghanistan in 1976, well before the Communist coup and the Soviet invasion. We certainly thought we would be going back. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khaled-hosseini/my-family-left-afghanistan-in-1976-well-before-the-communist-coup-and/)

[Khaled Hosseini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khaled-hosseini/)

> [Bloodletting on my premises that I ain't approved I take as a f\*\*\*ing affront. It puts me off my feed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/al-swearengen/bloodletting-on-my-premises-that-i-ain-t-approved-i-take-as-a-f-ing/)

[Al Swearengen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/al-swearengen/)

> [Bloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/napoleon-bonaparte/bloodletting-is-among-the-ingredients-of-political-medicine/)

[Napoleon Bonaparte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/napoleon-bonaparte/)

> [About one or two songs per record is me doing a little bloodletting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/art-alexakis/about-one-or-two-songs-per-record-is-me-doing-a-little-bloodletting/)

[Art Alexakis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/art-alexakis/)

> [“Vamps are really only like ten percent fun at any given time. The other ninety percent is largely fretting. And bloodletting.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chloe-neill/vamps-are-really-only-like-ten-percent-fun-at-any-given-time-the/)

[Chloe Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chloe-neill/)

> [Writing is easy. Just sit in front of a typewriter, open up a vein and bleed it out drop by drop.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/red-smith/writing-is-easy-just-sit-in-front-of-a-typewriter-open-up-a-vein-and/)

[Red Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/red-smith/)

> [The art of phlebotomy originated with bloodletting in 1400 B.C., and the modern clinical lab emerged in the 1960s - and it has not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-holmes/the-art-of-phlebotomy-originated-with-bloodletting-in-1400-b-c-and/)

[Elizabeth Holmes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-holmes/)

> [We can bear up under everything, if we have only the certainty that the monster Hitler with his insatiable bloodletting and plundering will have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-kellner/we-can-bear-up-under-everything-if-we-have-only-the-certainty-that/)

[Friedrich Kellner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-kellner/)

> [When future historians look back on our way of curing inflation...they'll probably compare it to bloodletting in the Middle Ages.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-iacocca/when-future-historians-look-back-on-our-way-of-curing-inflation-they/)

[Lee Iacocca](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-iacocca/)

## More by Edison McDaniels

> [“A large piece of lead floated out of Bobby head, followed by dark chunks of what could only be pieces of Bobby's brain. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edison-mcdaniels/a-large-piece-of-lead-floated-out-of-bobby-head-followed-by-dark/)

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> [“Hundreds of men crowded the yard, and not a one among them was whole. They covered the ground thick as maggots on a week…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edison-mcdaniels/hundreds-of-men-crowded-the-yard-and-not-a-one-among-them-was-whole/)

[Edison McDaniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edison-mcdaniels/)

> [“To The Undertaker or Friends Who Open This Coffin: After laying back the lid of the coffin, remove entirely the pads from the sides…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edison-mcdaniels/to-the-undertaker-or-friends-who-open-this-coffin-after-laying-back/)

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> [“The evening was a string of miserable minutes strung together in tiny clusters. Three minutes for a man shot through the shoulder; Ellis put…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edison-mcdaniels/the-evening-was-a-string-of-miserable-minutes-strung-together-in-tiny/)

[Edison McDaniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edison-mcdaniels/)

> [“There are monsters among us. I mean this quite literally.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edison-mcdaniels/there-are-monsters-among-us-i-mean-this-quite-literally/)

[Edison McDaniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edison-mcdaniels/)

[Explore all 6 Edison McDaniels quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edison-mcdaniels/)

## More Bloodletting quotes

> [We can only reach our goal amid bloodletting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/naz-m-hikmet-2/we-can-only-reach-our-goal-amid-bloodletting/)

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> [We can bear up under everything, if we have only the certainty that the monster Hitler with his insatiable bloodletting and plundering will have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-kellner/we-can-bear-up-under-everything-if-we-have-only-the-certainty-that/)

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> [The art of phlebotomy originated with bloodletting in 1400 B.C., and the modern clinical lab emerged in the 1960s - and it has not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-holmes/the-art-of-phlebotomy-originated-with-bloodletting-in-1400-b-c-and/)

[Elizabeth Holmes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-holmes/)

> [Writing is easy. Just sit in front of a typewriter, open up a vein and bleed it out drop by drop.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/red-smith/writing-is-easy-just-sit-in-front-of-a-typewriter-open-up-a-vein-and/)

[Red Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/red-smith/)

> [“Vamps are really only like ten percent fun at any given time. The other ninety percent is largely fretting. And bloodletting.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chloe-neill/vamps-are-really-only-like-ten-percent-fun-at-any-given-time-the/)

[Chloe Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chloe-neill/)

> [About one or two songs per record is me doing a little bloodletting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/art-alexakis/about-one-or-two-songs-per-record-is-me-doing-a-little-bloodletting/)

[Art Alexakis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/art-alexakis/)

> [Bloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/napoleon-bonaparte/bloodletting-is-among-the-ingredients-of-political-medicine/)

[Napoleon Bonaparte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/napoleon-bonaparte/)

> [Bloodletting on my premises that I ain't approved I take as a f\*\*\*ing affront. It puts me off my feed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/al-swearengen/bloodletting-on-my-premises-that-i-ain-t-approved-i-take-as-a-f-ing/)

[Al Swearengen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/al-swearengen/)

> [My family left Afghanistan in 1976, well before the Communist coup and the Soviet invasion. We certainly thought we would be going back. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khaled-hosseini/my-family-left-afghanistan-in-1976-well-before-the-communist-coup-and/)

[Khaled Hosseini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khaled-hosseini/)

> [“Esther Duflo, a professor at MIT with a strong French accent, likens all this research on development aid to medieval bloodletting.6 The once popular…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/esther-duflo-a-professor-at-mit-with-a-strong-french-accent-likens/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

> [“..each bloodletting hastens the next, and as the value of human life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated, the unimaginable becomes more conceivable.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-clinton/each-bloodletting-hastens-the-next-and-as-the-value-of-human-life-is/)

[Bill Clinton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-clinton/)

> [Converting the war into an antislavery crusade was a brilliant move on Lincoln's part, and it resulted in a surge of voluntary recruits into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-edward-griffin/converting-the-war-into-an-antislavery-crusade-was-a-brilliant-move/)

[G. Edward Griffin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-edward-griffin/)

> [War proves nothing. To kill a man does not prove that he was in the wrong. Bloodletting cannot change men's spirits, neither can the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nellie-l-mcclung/war-proves-nothing-to-kill-a-man-does-not-prove-that-he-was-in-the/)

[Nellie L. McClung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nellie-l-mcclung/)

> [When future historians look back on our way of curing inflation...they'll probably compare it to bloodletting in the Middle Ages.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-iacocca/when-future-historians-look-back-on-our-way-of-curing-inflation-they/)

[Lee Iacocca](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-iacocca/)

> [As in the pseudoscience of bloodletting, just so in the pseudoscience of city rebuilding and planning, years of learning and a plethora of subtle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-jacobs/as-in-the-pseudoscience-of-bloodletting-just-so-in-the-pseudoscience/)

[Jane Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-jacobs/)

[Browse all 17 Bloodletting quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bloodletting/)

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