On Saturday night I heard our local fire truck take off with the siren going. Not unusal in that we live fairly close to the fire house. The difference this night was very shortly after the siren went, we heard a large diesel truck moving down our street and stoping almost in front of our house. THAT was not the correct sound to be heard. Upon rushing outside I was very surprised to see what was going and moving into a very surreal moment of my life.
Our neighbor, Mrs. G was standing on her front porch yelling at the firemen to hurry up that her husband, nice guy age 48, no signs of bad health, was not breathing and didn't have a pulse. And they burst into the house and that is when things went into slow motion. I pulled Mrs. G out of the way and directed another neighbor to stay outside with her. I went into the house and sure enough, Mr G was laid out on the floor, the firemen were doing CPR and one of them was saying that he could not find a pulse and he was not breathing. In my definition, not breathing and no pulse means one thing.
I grabbed a blanket and went outside to find Mrs. G. Needless to say she was hysterical with fear and not knowing what was going on. I sent another neighbor inside to find out what the status was. We wrapped Mrs. G in a blanket to keep her warm and we helped her to make some phone calls to her family to let them know what was going on. I went back inside for a status and found that they had shocked Mr. G with the paddles and that he was breathing on his own but they still had a nasal and trach tube in him to keep him ventilated. The paramedics rolled him onto the backboard and they put him on the gurney and took him outside to the ambulence. I managed to find his wallet and give them his driver's license and find out which hospital they were going to take him too.
After they left, one of the neighbors was assigned to lock up the house and make sure the dog was ok. I drove Mrs. G to the hospital and helped to navigate that first hour of the most confusion in the emergency room. Her family begin showing up to assist her. I drove across town in the night to bring their daughter to the hospital so that she could be there. (She was spending the night at a friend's house.)
So that was Saturday night. On Sunday night, we found out that Mr. G had a massive heart attack and that his "widowmaker" or "widowmaker" was 100% blocked. The prognosis is that the longer he lives post-event, the better his chances are. Turns out the doctors are still assessing his situation and coming up with a plan to get him back on his feet. Its one thing to say someone had a heart attack but watching what they were doing to Mr. G and realizing that this could be the end..... SCARED ME TO THE CORE.
This brought about a very sobering conversation about what would our family do. My family would have to come in from Texas so that would take at least a full day. The Mom's family would have to come up from the Bay Area and that would take at least 3 - 4 hours once we made the call. And the fact that we have two small children; what to do with them? Leave them with a neighbor? Leave them with a stranger? Leave them with who?????
There is no one answer that can answer all of the possibilities. We can make some prior arrangements ahead of time and put some phone numbers in our wallets. We can hope for the best situation. We can stay active, eat right, go to the doctor on a regular basis and make sure our health is with us.
Having said all of that, I realize that carrying around a few extra pounds (OK, 60 extra ) is not a good thing that it is really taxing on my heart. I believe other than that I am in fairly good shape and that I do have some cardio stamina for my size. The last time I checked my cholestoral was in the acceptable range. But I also know that I don't eat the best foods and my snacks are not good for me. (Today I had an apple and a small handful of almonds instead of the chocolate cookies and M&Ms.) I am making an appointment with my doctor to do a full 12 hour fast blood draw for cholestoral check. I look at it like this.... I have two daughter, ages 3.5 and just turned 2. I have a long way to go and putting my family through something like what happened to the G's; I choose not.
What else did I learn, Mrs. G saved her husband's life by acting quickly and calling 9-1-1. CPR saves lives. Life is way too short to worry about all of the little things that cause us stress. Right then and there, in the living room of his own home, the G's world could have changed directions so quickly in a direction I bet they would rather not be on.
God bless to Mr and Mrs. G and ya'll are in our prayers.
