News of the day

Well, my grandmother was in the hospital for about a week. She has Congestive Heart Failure and they spent the week trying to get her heart rate down to a reasonable level. She is now in a nursing home. Mary Helen and Kamma have been doing all they can to make sure Grams is getting the best care. I am struggling with not being there, but there is really nothing I could do that would be helpful.

I had a surgical staple removed today. It was put in 22 years ago when I had my Right Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction. It had worked its way out so that I couldn't kneel on it. I am still a bit woozy so will end my post here. More later...

Accident Update

I drove past the accident site twice yesterday. It is really clear by the skid marks that the dump truck did everything it could to avoid the car driven by the elderly man.

On the way home I was stopped at a light and up pulls this big truck next to me. He rolled down his window and said, "Hey, were you at the accident the other day?" I looked at him and didn't recognize him, so I asked back, "Were you there?" He was. He was the commander of the fire fighting team that responded to the scene. I asked about the elderly man and whether his condition had improved. It has somewhat. He is now in serious condition, rather than critical. But, I don't know that he will be able to survive even that. Anyway, the commander thanked me for my help that day, the light changed and we went our separate ways.

It is weird to think that people are thanking me for being there. I was one of many people who helped that day. I just got the woman out of the car... others did the CPR. And I stayed in the man's line of sight so he couldn't see them working on his wife. I really did what I hope someone else would do for me.

Trouble on the way home

Today on my way home from a meeting in another city, there was a really bad accident (car vs dumptruck) just ahead of me. I stopped immediately and pulled off the side of the road on my motorcycle. There were already people at the truck so I went to the car. Inside was an elderly couple (in their 80's), both injured. I noticed that flames were coming up out of the hood of the car and yelled for a fire extinguisher. A nurse and a police officer on the scene demanded that we get them out of the car. I was against this, as I know the likelihood of a car exploding is really next to nil, but was outranked by the others, so I assisted in getting the couple out. The driver/ husband was simple, but the woman's/ passenger side was unable to be opened, so we had to take her out the driver side... She had lost all color in her face. She was dying. I spoke gently to her telling her what we were doing, and she moaned as if in answer, but never spoke again. Her last vocalization was to me, and I watched the life leave from her. We really had to work to get her out but finally managed, and placed her near her husband, away from the flaming car (which never did blow up). I moved away from the woman toward the man, as the nurse and several others began assessing the wife. I positioned myself between the man and his wife, so he could not see what was happening. I spoke to him, assessed his injuries and tried to get any information I could from him, but mostly I was distracting him. The others had started CPR on his wife, and when he asked me what was happening, I just kept telling him that they were working on her and doing all they could. He looked at me, with eyes pleading... watching, knowing that I was trying to help, but understanding that help would not be enough for his wife. When the Paramedics arrived, I passed on my assessment and went back to my motorcycle. The police officer came over and took my card so he could contact me for a statement. But he thanked me for helping and I turned around and drove home.