This past Friday was a very strange day. I worked my clinical rotation in the Johnson County Er from 8-5. Around 4:30, they received a call that an ambulance was bringing in a 43 year old male in cardiac arrest who had been electrocuted. By the time they arrived, it had been almost an hour since the first responder received the call, the man was gray and they were still doing compressions. I didn't know what to think. Having worked in the nursing home, I have had a few of my residents die. But this was different, the man was so young. I was standing there watching, when one of the Paramedics asked if I would like to do some compressions. This was the first time I had done compressions on a real person, and needless to say...I did not last long. Compressions are very strenuous work, I was soon out of breath and asking for a relief. The man had been putting up Christmas lights, he was moving his aluminum ladder when he hit the power line. He smelled very strongly of electrical burn. The Doctor soon pronounced the death and I high-tailed it out of there.
I was doing pretty good until I called my Mother. My parents had went to Columbus Ohio to be with my Aunt whose husband was having emergency surgery for sepsis. When I asked my mom how Tom was doing...she told me that he had died that morning. It was at this point that the tears came. It's one thing when you see an elderly person die...it's probable. My uncle was only 59 and didn't seem "old enough" to die.
Uncle Toms funeral was on Monday. It was a rough funeral...it's just really hard to believe he's gone. My siblings and cousins and I were reminiscing about Uncle Tom. There were basements in both houses that my Aunt and Uncle lived in (that I can remember). Uncle Tom always had a pool table and a bar in those basements. We kids loved to play with the pool table and make up our own games and rules. I do not ever remember a time when we got in trouble for playing with it. We just all knew that we had to take good care of the things when we got them out, and we had to put them back right where we got them from. Uncle Tom was always teasing everyone about how much food they would eat. He would make snide comments like, "boy, do you think you could get some more food on that plate?" or "whoa, are you sure there is still food out there? Or did you take it all"? He always had a grin on his face and a joke to share with everyone.
I guess the one thing that this last week has reminded me of is that you never know when you will die. You just have to be prepared to go whenever it's your time.
