Vacation - Life Altering

Well, what can I say. It's been a bad month. We've both been in counseling (separately) and we are beginning to discuss some of the problems. Who knows what will happen with us. I just returned from Cancun with a group of 20 friends and a much needed vacation. So much happened on this trip that just seemed to put things into perspective.

My Life Altering Events - Day 1: On the flight to Cancun, one of the girls in our group, Jane, had chest pains. She tells the flight attendant who tells the pilot who then had a doctor on the plane check her out. The next thing I knew, we were making an emergency landing and she was rushed to the hospital. She had a major heart attack. After the doctors told us there was nothing we could do, we took the next flight onward to Cancun. She ended up staying in intensive care for 3 weeks after major open heart surgery. She's doing great now and back to riding her Harley.

My Life Altering Events - Day 2: The second day we were there, we were at the swim-up bar and I was doing my best to drink away my blues. Working on my 4th Pina Colada, I hear screaming from across the pool, followed by my girl, Kelly who tells me to get over there fast and do something. I look over and even more people are screaming and I see a little boy was face down in the pool. Nobody was attempting to pull him out of the pool!

So yes, I am a Red Cross Volunteer and trained in CPR but I never actually thought I would ever have to use my training. As I made my way across the pool I was thinking the whole time, I've had too much to drink. I can't be of any help. Surely someone else will help before I get there. Nobody knew CPR. Not anyone in the crowd, not any of the hotel staff, no one. I get over to a crowd of people and in the middle is a little boy with a swimmie diaper on. He was a deep blue. His eyes were rolled in the back of his head. I said to myself "it's too late." The mother was screaming in Spanish. Nobody understood me because they don't speak English, and I don't speak spanish. The telephone lines were down due to the previous hurricane damage. I asked everyone around me to call the paramedics, the hospital, or fire departement. After starting CPR I began to lose track of reality... over and over and over with no signs of life. I kept asking everyone around me to please call for help. A lady near me who spoke english asked what to do to help. "Check his pulse and when I yell time, tell me how many minutes have passed from this moment on. I kept checking for life, and noticed blood on the concrete - and realized my knees were bleeding from leaning over him. TIME? The lady said 6 minutes. I yelled again to get help fast. I saw nothing from this baby boy. Absolutely nothing. I only saw a dead little boy and nothing I was doing was working. I was desperate at this point. A guy near me asks if he can help. I tell him - "just put your mouth over his mouth and nose." I kept pumping the chest, yell TIME? I check his pulse- no pulse, 9 minutes of CPR. We are all exhausted. I just keep saying over and over, don't stop.

TIME? 11 minutes. All of a sudden fluid started coming out of his nose. With more urgency we worked harder and faster. He begins to convulse however he's not conscience but his tiny body propels water. I remember the "finger sweep", head to the side, check chest, check pulse. Still not breathing. I hear a noise and more fluid out of both his nose and mouth. "TIME?? I scream... she says "12 minutes. All of a sudden the lady says, I feel a pulse!" He starts to cry and fights to take his own breath. One last breath, and all of a sudden I am no longer yelling. You can hear a pin drop. He cries a little more but never gains consciousness. Paramedics show up and immediately take him away on a pool lounge chair to serve as a stretcher. I am on my knees exhausted and terrified. What if we did it wrong or did not work. Was he brain dead? Did we just do this? Will he live?

The hotel staff was afraid to call the police because the mother and child were not guests at the hotel, but friends with the manager who snuck into the pool. He did live. He ended up with a chest infection and pneumonia but otherwise okay.

And all of a sudden, the little things going wrong in my life don't matter so much. I sat back and realized no matter what happens, I will have "No Regrets" not from the past, not from the future.

Please go take a CPR class.