Cleveland Sports Forum

RUSTY:
That was your finest post ever!

Guys and Gals, I know I can be an arsehole on occasion.

Tonight I am asking you to pray for a 19 year old girl named Shannon from South Bend. Indiana.

Long story short, I encountered her on the beach today as we traded conversation about her hatred of Notre Dame.

She soon after collapsed, I went into my personal medicine kit of drunk (thank you, Rusty) and Chris Titus inspired triage.

Immediately after confirming she was not in an epilectic attack and checking her tongue, I called for an ambulance.

I've had a personal heat stroke my wife misdiagnosed at the time, and I've watched many episodes of many medical shows.

I iced Shannon down with what was available and carried her into the shade and fanned her. And swore to myself I would keep her awake and conscious.

I announced to Shannon what I intended to do, and asked her permission to get her conscious buy in, in advance. I checked her extremities for feeling to see if she was having a stroke, and I iced her forehead and held her hand and stroked her forehead as I asked her questions about her family and where she was staying. I put her head on cushioning, and elevated her feet.

She told me nothing like this had happened before, and said she was not diabetic or epilectic, at least as she knew/knows.

She degraded quickly after telling me she was on vacation and staying with her uncle who is a city of Naples FL police officer, but then she could not conjure his name.

Or the date today, or the month, or the year.

The EMS guys arrived and determined they needed to get Shannon to the hospital, post haste.

Ambulance guys may arrive quickly, but by my personal experience, especially today, "quickly" seemed like "eternity."


I tracked down the police officer who's car Shannon was driving.

I'm normally a rock, but when I was telling my wife about my day, I, to my sudden emotional surprise, could not easily relate the events.

It sounds to me like you have some training, & didn't think about what you did. You just reacted & got the job done. If you aren't there on the beach, she probably doesn't make it. Tip of the hat to you.

TFISC- Good job! Hope all goes well.

Yep!

I made another trip to Ohio Sunday. My cousin passed on Wednesday of last week. The wake was Sunday evening and the funeral was Monday morning. Goodbye Robby!

Robbie was a veteran of Desert Storm. Home for leave years ago, he and his buddies went out on a bender and got stoned. Rather than drive back to the base, they decided to walk. Robby was hit by a drunk driver. Believe that? The broken bones healed just fine, but the brain damage he suffered impaired his speech. He went through a couple of years of therapy and unless you were around him on a daily basis, it was difficult to understand him.

Ten weeks ago, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given 2 months. The cancer spread to the brain, bones, and all the vital organs. The diagnosis was very accurate.

Robby was also a member of the Bridgeport Sportsman's Club and a long time member of the Brookside fire department and Emergency squad unit.

At the wake on Sunday evening, all of the firemen and paramedics stood guard one on either side of the casket changing every 15 minutes for the two hour viewing. They also gave a moving eulogy.

At the close of the wake, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars presented mom with the American Flag, taps was sounded, and the viewing ended with a gun salute.

On Monday morning, at the church, mass was said, the Ave Maria was sung by the all-girls choir, and two Marines stood at the altar at attention, unfolded the flag and held it steady until the hymn ended. They refolded the flag and presented it to mom. Most elegant the way those two young marines presented the flag. Makes me proud to be an American.

As we exited the church, the first memory I had was a fire truck draped in black. The firemen had black bands covering their shields, and the rear door of the Emergency Truck was opened. There was no hearse. Robby was being transported to the cemetery in the Emergency Truck.

First stop on the way was the firehouse where the "last call" was made and the sirens atop the firehouse sounded. The police station next door to the fire house was lined with officers in formation saluting as the Emergency Truck passed.

The sirens on the trucks sounded the five plus miles to the cemetery which was laid out in the country on a wooded hillside. After final prayers, taps was sounded once again and the guns rang out for the final time.

Sorry for your loss, JOE. Sounds like a very moving service and tribute to your cousin.

CALIFLA: Sounds like you did a great job helping that girl. Any updates?

Joe. my condolences as well. Our guys/gals give so much of themselves, only to have something like the above happen.

eocmcdoc wrote:It sounds to me like you have some training, & didn't think about what you did. You just reacted & got the job done. If you aren't there on the beach, she probably doesn't make it. Tip of the hat to you.

Thanks, guys.


McDoc, no professional training. As I sort of mentioned I had heat stroke myself one day when we were having the rolling blackouts in California and many were without power. My brother and sister in law came over with their kids as we had power for air conditioning, and they did not. I had a new grill and was out on the patio grilling (to save the energy grid, ironically) and chattering with my brother in law as the mercury registered 117 degrees on that particular patio during that particular heat wave.

He noted I was not sweating at all, and I just let him know that "heat never bothers me."

Soon after, I walked into the house with the grilled food and fell over. I felt nauseous and tried to go upstairs to the master bedroom and fell again. My wife later told me she presumed I was drunk or something, until she realized I had only had about three beers at most. By luck I ended up doing many of the right things by accident for heat stroke for myself, and came out just fine.

After my personal experience I googled and researched the very best things to do in case that heat stroke thing ever happened to anyone again while I was around.

Shannon just happened to collapse in front of me, and the "to do list" memory locked in.

Just to reiterate, the FIRST thing I did was call an ambulance, not yet having done my "triage" and having a collapsed young girl on my hands and needing to make decisions.

As to the updates on Shannon, best I can tell is that she must have been treated successfully and released, same day or evening. I checked with the notable local hospitals today and could not find one that had her, and learned their front desk software systems do not easily capture info on people who might have been there the day before and perhaps released.

My greatest takeaway from the experience is that God or whatever knew this girl collapsed with me when no one else was around, and seemingly said " 'You're up' to handle this one, Tribe Fan."

joez wrote: On Monday morning, at the church, mass was said, the Ave Maria was sung by the all-girls choir, and two Marines stood at the altar at attention, unfolded the flag and held it steady until the hymn ended. They refolded the flag and presented it to mom. Most elegant the way those two young marines presented the flag. Makes me proud to be an American.

My funeral director helped me arrange the flag ceremony and gun salute for my Dad when he passed, during Spring Training this season. The Veteran flag contingent played "Taps."

When I first learned of the protocol about the folding and presentation of the flag and the spent shells to me, I decided in advance I would give the graveside military salute items to his oldest surviving sibling.

After the graveside ceremony and the presentation of the flag and shells to me with my wife beside me, I decided I wanted to keep them all in my possession.

They are on display in the next room in a military funeral flag case I bought with a coupon at a "Michael's Arts & Crafts" store.

Very nice Tribe Fan.

The flag presentation just gave me the chills. Neither of the marines blinked an eye and there were hardly any head movements, period, for the three or so minutes that it took to fold and present the flag.

Trevor Bauer raps about the Tribe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7V0lTnzoVw

That is great !

PBS rocks.

Just caught a tribute to Burt Bacharach with vintage performances of his songs by the original performers.

Now we have Stevie Ray Vaughan in a 1983 concert with Albert King.

I was living in Chicago, the night Stevie Ray Vaughan died.

I hated living in Chicago suburbs, but really enjoyed renditions of "Sweet Home, Chicago."