Emergencies Revisited

I trust the weekend found you well. Friday night presented the grand opportunity for Poker with the guys. Unfortunately, it did not come to me. My plan was to depart the base and journey to the house, change of clothing, then drive to Long Beach. As I departed the base, traffic was more constrictive than usual to the eventual halt. Typical So. Cal. Freeway traffic, except not on this road. What was the delay? The worst thing I always hate to come upon. A fatality accident! The freeway was closed to through traffic, as SOP. I knew this, because the of the Sheriff’s CSI vehicles passing me, in the emergency lanes.

In my past, I have promised myself, never go by another in need. One late night, as a former girlfriend and I were driving home from a party, passed an automobile accident. The scene was a truck had slammed into a park car in the emergency lane. The driver of the truck was hanging out of the driver’s side window and a fire was burning under the truck. No other vehicles were on the road. I did not see a driver in the parked car and I assumed it was vacant. I stopped my truck and got out to assist the driver of the truck. My girlfriend had a complete breakdown at this point. She was under the impression that the truck was going to explode and did not wish my involvement. I saw the driver, of the truck, was coherent enough to understand the situation. He indicated his ability to remove himself from the vehicle. His desires, and my girlfriend’s, were the same. Somebody needed to alert the authorities and I was the only person available to handle this, due to my girlfriend’s intoxication levels. I complied. I drove about 5 miles to a convenience store to use their phone. I notified the authorities and decided to turn back toward the accident. Well, the accident happened on a long, descending curve of a mountain road. The road leading back to the location of the accident held a view of the scene. As we approached, we could see the authorities and fire department were on scene and the truck fully a flamed. The speed of my truck decreased, as a feeling of failure traveled through my body. I could only think the worse and it was frightfully horrible. I never desire that feeling of helplessness again! Opposed to giving up and turning to head home, I continued up the road and parked my truck. I walked up to the scene and sat on the side of the road beside another person, who was crying. The feelings, in me, became overwhelming and the idea of my incorrect response overcame my emotions. I thought, “Somebody died, because I did not properly evaluate the situation.” I was in my early twenties, not much experienced with “emergency” behavior, and here I am holding a responsibility I have never held before. And, I failed. The person I was sitting next to, and later discover to be, was the driver of the truck. He was overly intoxicated and during his drive failed to notice his vehicle drifting into the emergency lane. His collision was enough to total both vehicles. What a relief, he is alive. At that moment, I decided my future experiences would find a fast acting, clear headed individual, who would stop at nothing to make safe the circumstances and at all costs, save a life. Later, when I joined the Air Force, I was given the knowledge/ tools to keep this promise.

I did not make it to the poker game due to delays and the ability to make a reasonable arrival time.

Saturday, I woke early with an ambition for resolution of many projects. Then, I received the phone call telling me about my cousin’s admittance to the hospital. He was in the final stages of a two day emergency room visit. Through two separate hospitals, the ER Doctors were frantically trying to discover his problems. The cause was almost certain; however, the problem was a continuing question. He had experienced a spider bite approximately three to four weeks prior. The bite area was still inflamed and producing that typical “white ooze”. His temperature was high, not too high, but high enough to cause alarm. He was demonstrating signs of extreme dehydration, respiratory difficulties, and muscle spasms. His white blood count was three times higher than normal. Ok, I admit reading this, as I have laid it out, sounds obvious as to the nature of the problem. Please keep in mind, as with the doctors, much of this was a form of discovery. First, the problem was muscle spasms in the lower back. Did he pull a lower back muscle? The spasms moved to his Quad’s, OK, those are related. He is running a temperature, low grade, yet this could relate to the muscular problem. OK, I think you have the idea.

I spent the better part of Saturday by his side and communicating with the doctors with the hopes of being in some help.

Update: the latest blood work has revealed the bacterial strain and not its location. They are afraid it is in either his lungs, or his heart lining; and, in each case is cause for alarm. He is awaiting an irradiated injection and an immediate CTI scan. Here is an odd piece of information- should the body have an infection and white blood cells are migrating to that location, it can be tracked with the CTI scan. If the doctors remove a cell from a person’s liver, and inject the cell into another location on the person’s body, the cell will migrate back to the liver. Now, I am not a specialist in this matter, but it is my understanding this knowledge was gained through the controversial “Stem Cell” research. I do not know, but I think this is wild information. Anyway, if this were true- my cousin’s life could be saved from the research.
Sunday I picked up my drill press, with my son’s assistance, and a table saw. Way cool, now I can begin working on that dash board. I have always wanted to replace the car’s dash board with Rose Wood and Oak inlay. I thought that would look nice. The car is my son’s old Chevrolet. If I am successful, the next project will be in the Jeep. Custom Speaker boxes, dash, roll cage handles will all be made out of wood, in the Jeep. I just like that look and want to do the same on the TR-3, Triumph, when I get it. So, as my son and I are driving around on my errands, we see this beautiful lady stop her car in the middle of the road, exit, and begin yelling in the direction from where we were coming. OK, something is not good, I stopped my truck to look in the outside rearview mirror, and I see a small dog running down the street. There was another car following the dog, and the dog was running from this car. I looked back at the lady and I could see the frustration in her face. I thought about turning my truck around to help her catch her dog. In my mind, I could only think that the dog would run from me, also. I wished I could do more, but my son said to just “forget about it, and drive on”. That poor dog, I hope she caught it and brought it home to safety.

Monday, I cleaned around the house. I had a large list going, but was called to the hospital and could not complete the list. That is Ok, as my priorities are properly located.
Today, one of the Commanders is just returned and I am beginning an eleven day, duty. These are kind of cool, as I can “cash” them in later for some extra time off. I think it will be nice to take the Jeep out camping for four or five days.

End Novel

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