An eye-opening experience

Monday, July 10, 2006

A couple of Thursdays ago I took Skyler and Gauge to a family members Birthday party. Tiffany had to work. We left the party around 9pm. It was raining heavily outside. The whole trip was only about seven miles back to my house. After turning right from Elbow Rd. onto Centerville Tpke. I noticed traffic was stopped about half a mile down the street. I stopped behind the two cars in front of me.

At this moment a few things crossed my mind. First of all, I thought that maybe I should turn around and take another route home. On second thought, maybe I should get out and see what the problem was. I chose the second.

Intially, I did not see why everyone was stopped. Moments later I realized there had been a bad collision involving two vehicles. One had run off the road and the other was sideways, blocking traffic in both directions. "Is anyone hurt?" I quickly called out. A nearby observer said "yes, I think that vehicle has somebody injured in it." I turned around to a mini-van that was blocking both lanes to see a man hanging out the passenger side window, facing down.

Next, I called out "Does anyone here have medical experience?" A man answered "I am a Fireman for Virginia Beach Fire Department." I said I would help him and asked what we needed to do. He said we should secure the man's spine and remove him from the vehicle. I agreed to assist. A nurse had also been stopped in the traffic and offered up some gloves. After donning the vinyl gloves, we proceeded to remove the man from the vehicle.

The man in the mini-van was older. He had gray hair and thin skin. His body was limp. He was unconcious. The fireman had to dislodge the man's foot from the underneath the steering wheel to enable his removal from the vehicle. I supported hid torso/upper half of his body. The fireman carried him from the waist down. His chest seemed to collapse as we moved him. As we layed him down on a tarp on the asphalt that the bystanding nurse also provided, we determined that he had a weak pulse. He respirations were very shallow. Thank God, he was alive.

A random voice called out "Are there any other people in that vehicle?" We did not see any but had not thoroughly checked. After returning to the vehicle, we noticed an additional person in the passenger seat. She had been hidden by the man laying out the passenger window and the passenger side wreckage that was caved in over her seat. She was also unconcious.

About this time a police officer arrived at the scene and asked me several questions as to why I was taking people out of cars at the secene of an accident. I explained that I was assisting the fireman and would stop if he would rather do it. He asked me to go ahead and help get the woman out of the van. Her seatbelt was jammed. I ran back to the police officer's car and asked him for a seatbelt cutter. He obliged. I ran back to the van and handed the seatbelt cutter to the fireman. He cut the seatbelt and lifted the woman out of the seat and in to my arms. Once again, I carried the torso/upper body and carried her from the waist down.

We laid the woman next to the man on the tarp. She was not breathing. She had no pulse. While noone at the scene had a CPR mask, the nurse placed several 2x2 gauze pads of the woman's mouth and initiated CPR while I did chest compressions. Nothing! We could not revive her. She had a significant injury to her head.

By this time several other medical and police personnel had arrived on the scene. The medic in charge of operations stood over me while I did chest compressions. I was explaining to him everything that I knew about hat had heppened. I asked him if he needed my assistance any further and he thanked me and said his crew would take over from there.

I had blood all down the front of my shirt and pants. I could smeel the blood on my clothes. I was still a little bit confused as to what had just happened. I went back to my car a drove home. It took me about an hour before I could sleep.

The next day I read in the paper that the man lived with some broken ribs. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. I still see pictures in my mind of the scene. It doesnt really bother me I just see vivid details that did not seem apparent at the time. I still think about it everyday. I thought I might share my experience with you guys...

...you never really know when your life is going to end. One minute everything could be totally fine and the next it could be gone. Make your peace. Rebuild those bridges and learn to forgive.

posted by: ndicenso @ 3:12 PM 1 Comments | Post a Comment

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