When my kids were still little I went through a churchy stint in life. Micheal and Erica both went to private church school till they started going to public middle school later on. We all went to Sunday School as a "Family", I even helped teach a little kid Sunday School Class, seems like in another life to me now. I still know all the words and hand gestures to "The Devil is a Sly Old Fox", on a slow night I'll teach them to you... anyway I digress. We get this medical call early one evening about dinner time, we respond to the scene at this older couples home. It was an old guy that went to the same church I attended back then, he was down and not breathing with no pulse. This was way before we had the cute little pocket mask protectors, hell this was before AID's was even invented yet. We went to banging on his chest and yep I knelt down and put my lips on his. Mark Russo was doing the chest compressions and in between every fifth compression I watched this old guys chest rise as I blew my life giving air into his lungs. Everything was proceeding along as expected, unless you are the dead guy getting your chest caved in by the compressions and another mans lips are on yours. As the minutes slipped away I am still leaning low over our very dead dude, so I can methodically deliver my life giving breaths, ...one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand five, squeeze nose shut, lock lips, just then he pukes in my mouth. His last dinner had just been launched into my mouth and it had ejected out my own nose because I had such a good lip lock on this old codger. Lurching away with his chicken noodles still hanging out my nose. Mark stares at me in horror and asks "you OK?" As I dart for the front porch. Firefighters are trained not to throw-up on the carpeting. I can't stand the smell of chicken noodle soup even to this day without almost getting sick to my stomach again.
My CPR save record was pretty dismal until a few years ago. I think it stood at something like 0 for 32 before I finally got a save in. Life is crazy though, she suffered from terminal cancer. She didn't have any DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders so we had to begin CPR on her. She lived for awhile longer with a very sore chest before she died, again.
I had to do CPR on a infant one time that was being baby sit by my neighbors next door. They found the baby smurfy blue in bed early one evening, knew I was "the fireman", rushed over to my house and asked me for a miracle. I wasn't able to deliver. Possibly one of the most heart wrenching nights in my life. Doc's later on figured the baby had died from that mysterious phenomena called "crib death". It didn't make me feel any better having them put a name on it for me.
How often I wondered after hearing the signs that your Grandpa Buster was displaying and then someone being there that had known, even the old style CPR, would he have been with us a few more years, to teach and tell stories to his grandkids. I finally had to let it go out of my mind and say, "It was his time." Mom
ReplyDeleteMark Russo January 23 at 10:39am Report
ReplyDeletethanks Charlie. Ask Bill if he remembers the dispatcher who spit gum into the annie doll's mouth during the cpr part of our first EMT class. I think he was there, not sure now. As the training went at the time, you were supposed to walk up to the first rescuer and state, "I know cpr, can I help?"
I was clowning around, and as she leaned down to give a breath I said, " I know one potato, two potato, can I help?"