near drowning

Near drowning

On Monday Trent and I went surfing at Oceanside. I was paddling out in waste deep water, and a wave came and knocked me off the board. Witnesses said someone surfed by and either hit the back of my head with their board, or my head hit the board on it's own. It knocked me unconscious. At that point my lungs filled with water and I began to sink. Trent saw me, grabbed me, and pulled me out of the water and stared CPR because I wasn’t breathing and water was coming out of my lungs.
Things fell into place:

Trent was met on the beach by an off duty fire department officer who immediately started to get the water out of my lungs.

It happened in front of a lifeguard tower, so within two minute I had four lifeguards who shocked my heart with paddles [invented by a BLS alumni]twice on the beach.

The firemen, the police and the paramedics arrived, stabilized me and brought me to the hospital.

It was a critical enough situation that the Chaplain met Trent outside of the emergency room. I was placed on a ventilator and an IV, and Trent talked to the ER doctor about the situation before he called my parents.

The ER physician told Trent that I could die in the next few minutes, I could live and not know who I was or recognize anyone else, or I could live and be normal, but he need to be prepared for all three.

I stayed in the ICU for two days in an induced coma, on a ventilator. At one point I was on 80 micas of hard-core sedatives four hits of adavan and two hits of morphine all through the IV. The nurse told Trent that 30 micas would be enough to knock out David Ortiz for two days. I was still fighting to pull the tubes out after all these drugs. In retrospect, even unconscious I still want to have control over what happens to my body.

My parents flew in and stayed by my side for the rest of the week. Trent slept next to me in the hospital.

I remember very little of it all. I do remember the horrible thought that I couldn't assume my life and my body to be the same. All neurological tests came back normal, and I am told that I will be back, eventually to full capacity.

I was discharged yesterday, feeling normal, and not normal. I have a few physical reminders of what my body went through. The pain in my sternum, the infection in my lungs, the few scrapes from the sand and track marks from all the IVs.








I know I am very lucky. I know that this is going to effect me in many ways, ways that I can't even imagine today. And I do know that I feel good with where I am and with what I am doing with my life. I am reassured that I am pointing in the right direction.