A Lesson in Life

Wow this month just keeps getting crazier. I've already had plenty of life changing events this month, but Monday I had perhaps the biggest. I was playing pick up volleyball as usual and we were just about to start a game when out of the corner of my eye I see on the other court another player hit the floor hard. Now in volleyball this stuff happens all the time but I walk over anyways because I'm mildly concerned and I like to help people up when they get knocked down. So I see that its the old man (he's like 60 something) who plays volleyball with us but when I get close to him I could tell that this was no ordinary fall. I could see that he was not breathing and that he was turning blue and I could tell that this was serious. Our group leader comes over and in a matter of minutes, starts applying CPR while someone calls 911 to get an ambulance.

Watching the CPR before performed was one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch, and not because it wasn't a pretty sight, but because I felt helpless. I have this need to help people, and I felt powerless, that for all the numerous things I have taught myself, for all the things I have read this year, I did not know how to save a life and I felt terrible.

I'm not sure how long it took the fire and ambulance guys to arrive, but I swear it felt like an eternity. He was already motionless for quite some time and I was afraid my worst fears had been realized. The fire guys start applying CPR and then start shocking him with the defibrillator. That was the last thing I saw before we were escorted out by the ambulance guys. So I sat out in the hall with the others, listening to muffled sobs and conversations about emergency calls, and feeling bad that I couldn't do anything, so I did the one thing I could do and I prayed.

It was a while before I see them wheel him out on the stretcher. The last thing I heard was that he had a pulse and up till today that is all I know. I hope that he is ok. The whole experience was a huge wake up call for me. You often see how when people are faced with death they often have a new appreciation for life and that's exactly what has happened to me. I've put my recent problems in the context of what happened and they suddenly seem so trivial when compared to dying. I've also placed a priority on learning things that can help others, so that I won't be faced with a situation where I can not help again. I said at the beginning of the year one of my resolutions was to help the world. I know now the next step in that goal is helping to save a life.