|
|
Morning Weight
|
Evening Weight
|
|
Night before
|
---
|
118.8
|
|
Day 1
|
117.8
|
114.4
|
|
Day 2
|
114.4
|
115.4
|
|
Day 3
|
114.4
|
115.8 (after din)
|
|
Day 4
|
113.8
|
115.2
|
My weight is holding pretty steady, and I managed to drink 8 glasses of water yesterday. The corners of my mouth are healing nicely, and I hope that in a couple of days, the cracking will be a distant nightmare.
So, I alluded to a horrible incident in the gym yesterday. Let me explain....
I already knew it was going to be a shitty day. My littlest brother was running late for school (I drop him off in the morning to ensure that I get up and get my pahookis to the gym), I forgot my breakfast (sliced pineapple) on my way out of the door, and I was starving come gym time.
Then I get on the only open treadmill to start my fitness test and the woman on the one beside it had the worst imaginable breath ever. I'm talking....rank. It made me want to throw up, except, well, I didn't have anything in my darn stomach to heave!
I managed to get through my upright bike, my AMT, and my running cardio (my fitness test was better than the last time, so that's a plus!); then I headed to the weight room. Since I had done pecs and lower back the day before, I figured I could do some triceps and abs to balance it out and focus on legs during the latter part of the week. So I grab my bosu ball and I'm heading to set up my station when I hear a guy kinda yell/grunt really loudly by the leg press machine. I figure he smushed his finger between two plates (haven't we all?) and I didn't give it much thought....until he did it again, much louder, and remained hunched by the machine.
I cautiously approached him from the other side, asking if he was okay (because I thought maybe he had somehow gotten caught under the machine--I had no idea how I was going to help, but I HAD to offer). That's when I notice his hands were curled into claws and that he was seizing.
At that moment, he fell down and began to convulse. I've seen someone have a seizure before, and luckily there was someone else in the weight room at that time who ran to help assist me. We rolled him over, and then realized this was no normal seizure. He was bleeding from his mouth and his eyes. His eyes actually looked black around the edges because of the blood vessels, and I saw blood coming from them. It wasn't just broken blood vessels, but ACTUAL blood. Now, had it just been coming from his mouth, I would have figured he had bitten his tongue. As it was, we knew something was very VERY wrong.
I told the guy who was holding him to stay with him, then SPRINTED to the main desk to tell the person to call 911; that a man was having a seizure. Being as she was from another country, I guess she didn't understand me or why I was shouting. I shouted to the rest of the gym that if a medical professional was there, that they needed to come fast, because he needed a doctor or a nurse. By that time, I had already grabbed my phone and started dialing 911. They answered immediately, and after I calmed down, I explained where I was, what was happening, and to send help. A few minutes later, the managers of the facility also came downstairs and attempted to help. There was nothing I could do, and he was having large muscle contractions by this time, and lapsing in and out of consciousness. The police chief arrived, and about ten minutes after making the call, the paramedics (FINALLY) showed up.
It turns out that this guy (who couldn't have been older than 21 or 22) had a preexisting condition; he wasn't wearing a medical bracelet indicating his propensity for seizures (which I know can be difficult and burdensome to wear in a gym). The medics got him in the bus and started an IV, and he suffered a gash to the head as well when he seized. I gave the police a report, and then went cut my workout short and went home.
The rest of the day was pretty much wasted. I didn't feel better until I called the hospital, explained who I was (to three separate people), and just asked if he was okay. They told me they couldn't give me a report (which I was okay with and understood, due to HIIPA), but that he was being released (it was noon at that time).
However, it got me thinking....the emergency procedures in this gym were sorely lacking. No one covered this guy to keep him from going into shock (and the weight room was cold). The people behind the front desk were not equipped to handle such an emergency. They didn't even call the ambulance, but instead opted to phone the police, which could have wasted PRECIOUS minutes had this been something worse (not that this wasn't God-awful) and had I not called 911 instead. No one brought a defib in case this guy's heart stopped, and I'm not sure they even had one. It seems to me that every single gym should have an emergency plan in place, particularly at a university. No alarm was raised, no intercom system was used, and no one seemed to be in much of a hurry.
It also made me think about how fragile life is, how unpredictable your day may be, and how much I hold on to trivial details when I should be thinking about the larger picture.
Just food for thought....
No comments:
Post a Comment