ruminations

This is a chance to get all those things that keep me awake at night out of my head and well, somewhere else. Stephen King did it and look at how well he did!

Friday, October 06, 2006

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.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The day of the accident you witnessed was my birthday. I'm 38 - so what?! I hope I live to 108. Really puts our lives into perspective, eh?

I'm sorry you had to see all of that, but if you made it one tiny iota better for either the man or his wife, then you were there for a reason.

Thanks for telling us this story. I am reminded to appreciate all I have.

Deanne

10:04 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home