Ambulance
Last night I took this old body out for a walk. Before I left I said to my daughter-in-law, “I am going to bring my phone with me in case I fall and can’t get up.” We both had a little chuckle and off I went. Be careful what you say to the universe because not long after I left my house I came in contact with one of the pedestrian’s worst nightmares: a cyclist!
It was a beautiful August evening, warm with a cool breeze, bright blue skies above and the streets in the neighborhood quiet. Walking toward a path I thought to myself, “I’m glad it’s not dark. I wouldn’t want to be alone walking through this path at night as it’s covered in tall bushes and you can’t see what’s around the corner.”
Just as I thought that I stepped toward the opening to the path and out of nowhere came this young man on his bike! Before I actually saw him, I heard the bike (I think it was behind the bushes), the swwwwoosshhh of the wheels turning very fast, and before I knew it he was right in front of me.
Being the crazy woman that I am, I figured I could stop a bicycle coming at me at 30 miles an hour. Now, I am robust but I am not Superwoman. I have no clue where the idea came from that I could stop this kid on this bike. So up went my arms much like Superman does in his movies (The scenes where he picks large trains up with his pinky finger? Yes, I figured I could do that too.) Do not try this at home! I was never very bright when it came to math, so physics really is not my forte. Yet I should have realized that Object A coming toward Object B at 30 miles an hour will result in Object B flying through the air even though Object B is, as she said earlier, robust!!
I think I was in shock that I couldn’t stop this kid on his bike, and then I remember flying through the air. That is when I screamed. Then there was this peaceful moment when I could hear nothing – no birds, no screaming, no kids playing somewhere near the accident; there was just this beautiful, peaceful silence. And everything happened in slow motion. Except when my head flew back like a soccer ball – bounce, smack, bounce, smack – and then we were back in reality.
The young man was leaning over me, asking me if I was all right. “Ahhhhh, not really,” I wanted to say to him. “I have just been thrown a couple of feet in the air. Please let me check to make sure all of my extremities are working.” I could move my hands, which hurt from scraping against the asphalt; my feet could move, so I hadn’t broken my back or my neck, which was a miracle in itself, and I could talk.
I pulled out my phone and asked the kid to call my son. It’s much better to be hit by a cyclist in a good neighborhood than in a bad one. Chances are the person who hit you will look after you as you lie in pain waiting for someone to come and rescue you. So being a good lad, this young man (whose name was Liam, I found out later) called my son and told him that he had just run into me. The conversation went something like this, my son told me later: “Hellooo?” “Yes, hello. Is this Ryan?” “Yes, who is this? Why are you on my Mom’s phone?” Ryan asked. “I just ran into your Mom with my bicycle. What should I do?“ Liam asked rather politely. “What the #@*&#@? Call 911!!” Ryan yelled back.
At that moment, another young man showed up on the scene – Jeff, I think his name was. He very calmly took over from Liam, who was as shook up as I was, and rightly so. Jeff called 911 and told me to lie still until they came, saying that it was important not to move anything just in case. He really didn’t need to tell me that; I wasn’t going anywhere and the tears were streaming down my cheeks and my vision was blurred (but not by the collision). In my mind I knew I had to check behind my head, but I was terrified of what I would find. I didn’t want to feel a warm mushy mess.
Lying on the ground blubbering, I made the move and lifted my arm, which was very sore as well, behind my head. There at the back of my head was a huge, and I mean huge, bump, but no mushy mess. I said a brief prayer to God thanking him for watching out for me. By this time my son was with me and we were waiting for the ambulance to come. My husband was on his way as well after being woken up by my daughter-in-law with this news. He would arrive later at the ER with my Medicare card.
Jeff would give me instructions every now and then as to what to do. I was just relieved that there was no warm mushy mess behind my head. Jeff called 911 again to ask where the ambulance was.
By this time there was a crowd gathering, including a Dominoes Pizza delivery car that had stopped in the middle of the street to see what the commotion was. Jeff quickly said to the driver, “Hey man, don’t you have some pizza’s to deliver?” Jeff was pretty cool, I have to say!
The paramedics arrived – two lovely women who took such care of me, in English and French! It was my first and hopefully my last ride in an ambulance. Strapped into the stretcher I could not move anything! They assured me I would be fine but that they had to make sure I couldn’t move anything just in case there were issues with my neck or spine. Panic began to set in early on during the ride. One of the paramedics told me that riding in her ambulance was like being in a five-star hotel. She said to me, “Whatever your need we aim to satisfy.“ She gave me oxygen; my panic attacks subsided. Thank God for those two lovely women, who indeed made my first ambulance trip feel as if it was a brief stay in a five-star hotel!
My son rode with me in the ambulance and my husband met us at the ER. I went through triage and was then given bed R. Bed R was in the middle of a hallway. After about two hours I had a PET scan done and then waited to see the doctor. Another hour or two later, the nurse came to say I could have the Tylenol I had been asking for and that I could take the neck brace off. I was so happy to have that neck brace removed. Shortly afterward the doctor came to tell me that the PET scan was normal and that I had a concussion. He handed my husband a pamphlet that told him what signs to look for, such as vomiting, loss of vision to name just a couple, and that if I displayed any of those symptoms in the following days I was to return to the hospital. I was happy to go home!
So it’s day two and my head does not hurt as much nor am I in as much of a fog, but I am going to just take it easy. The doctor told me it would take about two days for the swelling of the first layer of my head to go down and another two weeks for the layer beneath that to heal!
I am just grateful that I have a loving family to take care of me; they all were there for me and dropped everything in order to make sure I was going to be all right. I am grateful for those two young men who stood by me while I waited for my family to arrive at the scene, thankful that I never was alone. Being injured is scary and makes one feel very vulnerable. I would say those two young men were obviously very well brought up. I am sure their mothers would have been very proud of them. Thank you, Liam and Jeff.
It could have been a much worse scenario that night but thankfully it wasn’t and I am more than grateful for that! Please, boys and girls, old and young, watch out for each other out there in the world; we only have one chance at this life, so let’s make it count! Play safe and look after each other!
Image Credit
“ambulance” (free icon). www.freepik.com.
A well written article with an important story to share. Well done, and thank you for the safety reminder.
Moira