First one
Gold Member
I don't know if this is the place to post but I need to vent somewhere.
Last night as my wife and I and 15 year old step son was leaving a Goodwill store we went to get into our jeep and saw a lady getting into the car beside us and saw her boyfriend behind the wheel talk to her and then fell forward into the steering wheel. We asked if she needed help and she said he pasted out. She started calling 911 as my wife and I ran to the drivers side door to open it . WOW! I opened the door and tipped the man's head back and spoke to him , eyes wide open ,mouth open, no response. I felt for a pulse there were none and he had stopped breathing. Scary ****!!! if you never have had to do this before!! I have had training in CPR before but never thought I'd have to use it, always thought that there would be someone else to step up and take over , not this time. I pulled the man out of the car and checked again for breathing and a pulse ,none .
I knew if this man ( latter found out he was in his early 50's) was going to live I needed to do cpr now!! I started to do compressions,(30 then checked for breathing and pulse and repeated) as my wife ran into the store to get help and to see if they had a AED, they had none and no one came out to try and help . It was up to me , to keep it up until the Ambulance showed up. 10 to 15 min later they showed up seemed like forever. I thought when the medic ran up to me he would take over, but he just said your doing good keep it up as they where trying to get **** together . My wife asked them to help me that I'd been doing it for over 10min ,but they didn't want me to stop . They got a bag out which was the wrong one and had to go back to get the right one and the board to put him on . They told me to stop just long enough to get him on the board , but they had trouble getting him on it because we where still in between two parked cars.
At this point I couldn't feel anything but burning in my arms , but still had enough to grab him by the belt and slid him on it ,and grabbed the end of the board to pull it out in the open so they could take over . That was the first time I was able to step back, did I say WOW! They put him in the Ambulance and worked on him before taking off . I jumped in the lady's car and drove her to the Hospital. My wife met us there and we waited to hear if he was going to make it . I'm sad to say he didn't.
You don't know how this messes you up , until it happens to you . I can't seem to get his face out of my head . I think if he had made it, it would be different , but he didn't. They told me at the hospital ,that it must have been a massive heart attack because they never got a response at all . You replay everything over and over to see if you did everything right . If you had done this or that would he still be here . I haven't felt this helpless since my son (18) took his life in 2003 . These things you never get over , you have to live with the "what if's"everyday .
My wife said that maybe I wasn't there to save him ,but was there to take all the feelings of the helpless that I'm living with away from his girlfriend, who was so scared she couldn't have done anything and would have had to deal with the "what if's" , if I hadn't taken over . She thanked me over and over and my wife for being there and thanked my stepson for praying for him ( We made him go back in the car while all of this was going on) she said she knows we did everything we could for him. Its hard for me to think he died and I couldn't save him, just like my son .
Sorry , to have been so long ,but I needed to get this out and you all have been so understanding no matter what people have to deal with , thanks for being here.
Last night as my wife and I and 15 year old step son was leaving a Goodwill store we went to get into our jeep and saw a lady getting into the car beside us and saw her boyfriend behind the wheel talk to her and then fell forward into the steering wheel. We asked if she needed help and she said he pasted out. She started calling 911 as my wife and I ran to the drivers side door to open it . WOW! I opened the door and tipped the man's head back and spoke to him , eyes wide open ,mouth open, no response. I felt for a pulse there were none and he had stopped breathing. Scary ****!!! if you never have had to do this before!! I have had training in CPR before but never thought I'd have to use it, always thought that there would be someone else to step up and take over , not this time. I pulled the man out of the car and checked again for breathing and a pulse ,none .
I knew if this man ( latter found out he was in his early 50's) was going to live I needed to do cpr now!! I started to do compressions,(30 then checked for breathing and pulse and repeated) as my wife ran into the store to get help and to see if they had a AED, they had none and no one came out to try and help . It was up to me , to keep it up until the Ambulance showed up. 10 to 15 min later they showed up seemed like forever. I thought when the medic ran up to me he would take over, but he just said your doing good keep it up as they where trying to get **** together . My wife asked them to help me that I'd been doing it for over 10min ,but they didn't want me to stop . They got a bag out which was the wrong one and had to go back to get the right one and the board to put him on . They told me to stop just long enough to get him on the board , but they had trouble getting him on it because we where still in between two parked cars.
At this point I couldn't feel anything but burning in my arms , but still had enough to grab him by the belt and slid him on it ,and grabbed the end of the board to pull it out in the open so they could take over . That was the first time I was able to step back, did I say WOW! They put him in the Ambulance and worked on him before taking off . I jumped in the lady's car and drove her to the Hospital. My wife met us there and we waited to hear if he was going to make it . I'm sad to say he didn't.
You don't know how this messes you up , until it happens to you . I can't seem to get his face out of my head . I think if he had made it, it would be different , but he didn't. They told me at the hospital ,that it must have been a massive heart attack because they never got a response at all . You replay everything over and over to see if you did everything right . If you had done this or that would he still be here . I haven't felt this helpless since my son (18) took his life in 2003 . These things you never get over , you have to live with the "what if's"everyday .
My wife said that maybe I wasn't there to save him ,but was there to take all the feelings of the helpless that I'm living with away from his girlfriend, who was so scared she couldn't have done anything and would have had to deal with the "what if's" , if I hadn't taken over . She thanked me over and over and my wife for being there and thanked my stepson for praying for him ( We made him go back in the car while all of this was going on) she said she knows we did everything we could for him. Its hard for me to think he died and I couldn't save him, just like my son .
Sorry , to have been so long ,but I needed to get this out and you all have been so understanding no matter what people have to deal with , thanks for being here.
