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Funny how the brain works
This is something from the
bartcop.com archives.
I thought about this over the weekend, looked it up, and was damn shocked.
Back in the day, I worked at a 4 person used car lot.
One of those four died sitting at his desk, without even the time to
dial 911,
or say "Oh!" or throw his body
on the ground to get our attention.
Here's what I wrote at the time.
They bagged him,
one guy was doing chest compressions,
two others
were running the IV and there was a guy on the shock box.
Can I say
one thing?
At one
point they EMT dude looked at me and said,
"Hold this
bag, I have to go to the truck."
So I'm holding the saline bag, and and I hear the EMT say, "Clear!"
I'm no chemical
engineer, but doesn't salt water conduct electricity?
Again,
I was determined to do whatever it took to help my friend, but just to
be safe,
I lifted
my elbow and held the bag with a faint two-fingered grip, to minimize the
voltage.
A med-tech
looked at me and laughed, which I welcomed.
He said,
"You're OK."
More minutes
went by, I didn't see any progress.
After a
while, they got a heartbeat and said his BP was 48/80.
They took
him away.
The weird part of this story?
That's not what happened!
I have no idea why my memories today clash with
what I wrote then.
Maybe I was trying to protect you, the reader,
but Jim was dead on the spot.
They asked me 2-3 times,
"How long has he been down?" and
I'd say, "Maybe 6 -10 minutes?"
We had just finished lunch. Vic cooks like
f-ing Wolfgang.
Seriously, you'd pay $10 for a small bowl of
his Mac & Cheese.
Vix cooks like he has twenty years apprenticeship
in Paris.
The boss was running errands,
Jim went back to his desk,
Vic went outside to smoke cigarette,
I was working on the page.
Jim must've died super-suddenly, which is creepy,
because he didn't even have time to say, "Oh!"
He died sitting up at his desk - looking forward
- with his eyes open.
But why would I write that they got a pulse and took him to the hospital?
Theoretically, that IS possible, but each time the EMS dudes
asked me,
"How long has he been down?"
I
knew he was saying that he was
too far gone to come back.
<Bart does a shot>
Don't get me wrong - I'm not above lying, but why lie when the truth will do?
Is that's a new Bart's Law?
I think it is.
Never lie when the
truth will do!
I did everything I could to save my friend Jim,
but why would I write that they left with a pulse
when my 2007 brain says that never happened?
Were the EMS boys humoring me?
Were they passing the buck?
Was I lying to myself?
Update: Mrs Bart says Jim was alive, at least to a point.
His family had a chance to say goodbye to him in the hospital,
so my 2007 memories are faulty - another reason not to
trust
what you read in the Internet.