Last night, I was awoken again, as is usual, by the pain of one of my learning moments, that required subsequent surgery, casting, plates rods, pins and some overdue ‘reflection’.
A couple of months ago I was, as I’m want to do, at my favourite coffee shop, headphones on, writing, when a noise drew my attention away from my musings.
It was the sound of a coffee cup hitting the floor, shattering.
I looked up and people were all looking in the same direction, watching.
I stood up and peeked over the counter to see a white haired woman, nattily dressed, collapsed on the floor, leaning against the counter.
I got up and leaned down, and it was immediately obvious that she was in serious trouble. I pulled her toward me while a worker cleaned up the glass and cream all over her and the floor.
I told the girl to call 911 and began a simple assessment of her condition.
She was awake, yet apparently barely conscious.
I asked her to squeeze my hands, which she did, I asked her if she had a heart condition, she said she did not. I asked if she had pain, and she stated yes, in her chest.
I asked her what her age was, and if she was on any medications, she stated 64, and no.
I told her paramedics were on the way, and I checked her pupils and pulse. Her pulse was thready and tachycardic, her eyes, unfocused.
Then she said, “I’m afraid,” and she collapsed into my arms.
I laid her on the floor. She had no pulse, she was not breathing.
I started CPR.
Approximately 8-9 minutes or so later, fire and ambulance paramedics arrived. I continued CPR, while they began their assessment and connected the leads for their 12 lead, started an IV line and began transmitting data, while assessing her heart.
I continued CPR.
Then a paramedic stepped in to do compressions while another bagged her with O2.
They shocked her three times.
They attempted to stabilize her, I checked my watch.
Forty one minutes had passed.
She was on a backboard which they scooped onto the stretcher, and then, — she was gone.
I noticed a bit of blood on my chest and went to the washroom to clean up.
Where Are We Today
This morning after awakening, I couldn’t stop thinking of what I could have done differently.
Carry an airway. Ask the coffee shop to purchase an SAED, an ambi-bag and a O2 bottle with regulator and tubes.
And so I did.
Our Shared Reality
It then struck me that this is where ‘we’ the people, now reside.
We can see we’re in the middle of a life-threatening emergency, but we’re still standing at the counter asking for our Macchiato Latte with Soy, while we watch the patient collapsed on the floor.
As someone who has suffered a litany of serious injuries and accidents, including two skull fractures, a broken neck, back (four fractured vertebrae), an embolism, ruptured sinuses, blown ear drum, flailed chest, near amputated right leg, compound fractures and broken most bones except my femurs and pelvis, — I can speak from experience that the patient that America is, at this moment, — is on life support.
“I Too, Am Afraid“
The patient that democracy is, is now lying prostrate on the floor, while those in attendance are trying to determine if the victim can be saved.
Most are untrained, emotionally detached or simply unconcerned.
This too shall pass (they say), just like the victim on the floor.
And yet, each, in turn walks back to their seat and ‘doom scrolls’ the days events completely oblivious to the ramifications and prognosis of not just the patient, but their own futures.
For unlike my real victim, who had suffered a pulmonary embolism, they are all showing the symptoms of Ebola, yet are doing nothing except administering extra sugar while they’re temperature rises and confusion begins to set in.
My ‘hope’ is that somehow, those with the ability, knowledge, intelligence, stamina and wherewithal to fight this deadly virus of hubris, arrogance, ignorance and sheer stupidity, will find the means to act, before the patient, bleed’s out from his hemorrhagic fever.
The accountant’s in the booth adjacent are making bets on the likelihood of survival. Forever the profiteers.
Meanwhile the infection spreads, unbeknownst to those who simply read the wind for the faint odour of decomposition, while looking at whether they’re foreign investments and the cost of that house on the Amalfi coast is still doable.
American democracy in action.
Don’t you just love it?
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