ER doctor’s wild story about a biker gang and a 6-year-old child has the internet in tears

In many cases the sweetest and most tender human connections are the least expected on paper. It's all too easy to subscribe to a shallow form of tribalism and make broad assumptions about someone's interior life based on the way they dress or who they hang around, but there's always more to it than that.

There are many cases in which the seemingly intimidating or scary biker has a heart of gold, and the seemingly polished professional is a total shark who will hurt you.

To this very point, in a recent Quora thread a commenter asked ER doctors to share the most amazing thing they've witnessed on the job, and one doctor's answer entailed an unlikely friendship between a group of bikers and an abused six-year-old girl.

A six-year-old girl had an “accident.” I am putting this into scare quotes, because it was a combination of parental neglect and her being hurt badly by an older kid the day before and her getting dizzy while carrying the laundry downstairs because her mother was too high to do it. No six-year-old girl should be in that situation, but if it had to be one, she wasn’t the one."

She was frail from bad or no food, scared easily because of what happened at home and in school where she was bullied relentlessly, and still, she managed better than most adults. Beneath the facade, however, was a very sad, scared, and lonely little girl."

She came to us, and the trauma guys started in on her fractured arm and clavicle, someone else worked on her cuts, and a nurse was keeping her company, because the mother was nowhere to be seen. The neighbors had called EMS after she’d walked out of the house in search of someone to give her a Band-Aid."

Two cots down was a man I’d change the side of the road for if I’d met him in person. Huge, bulging, muscles, beard, biker getup. Had been stabbed by someone he refused to identify, saying it must have been an accident or something. With him were his brothers, more massive specimens of the human race, bearded, grim."

As it happened, one of those human 18-wheelers went, declaring loudly that he had to take a “f***ing piss,” past the girl’s cot, as the nurse had the front open for a few seconds. In a split twitch of the eye, this scary dude turned teddy bear. Without asking he just went in."

What happened, little one?” he asked.
I fell,” she said.
No one falls like this, I’ve fallen a lot, I know what that looks like,” he said."

And, suddenly, there was this HUGE man, sitting with this little girl, making her giggle (and flinch, because that hurt), petting her hair, and scaring the team. That’s when I was called, because for some reason they always call the psych for those things. Not because it takes a psych, but because we’re expendable in case the wardrobe-sized human gets angry."

I walked in, had a brief conversation, decided that this wasn’t much of a foul and there was no harm, and left. When I was outside the barn door human followed. He had tears in his eyes. “Who does this to a little girl, man?” he asked. “Assholes,” I said, which I admit wasn’t super professional. “No one should hurt this girl, I am not going to let that happen,” he said. “Umm, dude, we have security and you’re kind of trespassing.” “Stop me,” he smiled between tears."

And THAT’s when it all went crazy.
The girl’s mother came in. Still strung out. With her weird steroid-pumped boyfriend in tow. Made a scene. Wanted some Morphium to take home for the girl (yea, right), wanted the $20 the girl had taken from her piggy bank, to “buy food,” and more."

And between the steroid guy and the mother and the girl stood … the whole MC. Turns out that Mr. Mt. Everest was the Chaplain of that MC. That’s not a religious designation but might as well be, he’s the guy everyone comes to with their problems, and in return he’s got the power to command most any favor."

The boyfriend tried a few things to intimidate the girl, like telling her that she knew what would happen if she told the nurses about their home life and that she better get well soon because the dishes weren’t done. And for every attempt at intimidating her, two of those bikers stood by her side, keeping her safe, keeping the staff safe (including walking with the nurse to get medications)."

That’s where my part ends. But the grapevine works, and for the coming days she was in the hospital they stayed with her. Their own member had his arm stitched up and went home that day, they stuck around. Which was a problem for the hospital, because legally they could not be there, not being direct relatives and all. But the mother had enough brain not to call the cops, the hospital was somewhat ambivalent, and the nurses loved those scruffy teddy bears who’d come in with gifts and snuck candy and told stories."

I met one of the bikers a few weeks later. He had been “accidentally” hit with a baseball bat and needed some X-rays because those things cause massive internal bleeding. He told me that, when the girl was about to be discharged, they’d had a conversation with the mother and had come to a “mutual agreement.” That one of his brothers was a teacher and had been visiting with the girl to get her up to speed on stuff. That another brother brought her to school until the bullies understood that there was muscle behind her, and that their “advocate” had had a “nice talk” with the teacher about allowing this kind of bullying."

I don’t know what happened to her. But I know that, for a second there, looking in the eyes of a man who probably wasn’t the kind of person you’d expect to care, I saw something that made me glad to be where I was. That even he could show the concern and love for a stranger, and turn from scary mothereffer into a teddy bear in seconds. That day was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen."

The story of a sweet and unlikely friendship quickly became top-voted on Quora, and garnered a lot of emotional responses, mostly from people with their own heartwarming tales about bikers.


USA - TN.