I had my first encounter with emergency CPR today. I went bowling with J.W. and in the middle of game 3 an anouncement came over the sound system "is there a doctor in the house, or a nurse." I walked over to the scene where many people were gathered over a man in his 60's weighing in at around 260 or so. He was laying on his back and his face was slightly blue-ish. There was a crowd around him and one person performing chest compressions. I made my way through and started breathing for him, for about a minute. An R.N. came in and took over for me, and I stood watching as he lay there having his heart pumped and his lungs filled for him. Suddenly it occured to me, tilt his head back and pull his chin down or he'll choke on his tongue so I jumped back in and assisted that way. A man tried to pull me back out of the mix and I told him I knew CPR and what I was doing. 3 minutes and still no pulse, it didn't look good, suddenly the EMT's walked through the door and the crowd called for them. I made my way back to the table I had been sitting at all night and wiped my mouth as many people asked me how the man was. "He's in cardiac arrest, but he has many good signs." I answered as I walked past and sat down at the table.
This night made me too knowingly aware of exactly how mortal each of us are. This man was due for open heart surgery at the end of the month, and he lay on the approach of spectrum lanes. It really hit me as everyone started bowling again, this man was somebody's father, grandfather, uncle, cousin and brother. As a patron of heart failure I realized how pissed I would be at the person just like me.........They helped him breathe for a while and when their duties were passed they went back to drinking beer.
I sympathize with that person who got that phone call that he had had a heart attack and was on his way to the hospital. I thought of all the questions I knew they had running through their mind, and I realized it was better that no one answered them. 3 nurses, and 3 N.T's that just went back to their evening events as soon as he was in someone elses hands.
How many different billions of lives go on as normal while one persons world absolutely falls apart at the mere ringing of the phone. It brings new meaning, for me, to life and all the amazing expectations I have for mine. As my life is merely beginnning and I have endless possibilities, someone else is ending their time on this earth, and many other people are mourning the end of that life.
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Yes it happens all of the time. I'm really amazed at how complete strangers do jump in and work to save one of their own species. Even if they go back to bowling after.
Take CPR for example, I think in large part CPR is for the living. It actually saves about 1 in 60,000 lives. That is to say that if someones heart stops, CPR isn't going to start it again. It might give them a fighting chance until the defibrilator gets there, but that's debatable as well. Still we do it. Even against those kind of odds, we take time out of our lives (bowling games) to try to save another. This is an amazing instinct. Perhaps it is facing our own mortality that causes this reaction. We see ourselves dying on the floor of a bowling ally. Being young is knowing that life is long. There is an endless supply of it. Scenes like the one you described are in opposition to these youthful perceptions and hard to assemilate.
An Individual life is very fragile, but life as a concept will and does go on in its endless robust spiraling fashion. I think that's pretty cool.
I guess I never actually thought about how frequently things like that actually happen, or the statistics of CPR (even though I know them full well).
I suppose I have a whole lot of things to learn in the next years of my life. I was talking to the counselor at GRCC for attending classes next fall, and I am going to see people pass away everyday as a nurse.
Not only will you see them pass away, but you'll be bathing and cleaning them after they do.
thanks for that image. It's going to become reality for me every day.
Better that you know now and are prepared, no?
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