Yesterday was eventful. It started out as a lazy day...we slept in past church, so we gave up on that- whoops. James spent the morning/afternoon reading and playing on the internet, and I read and did some cleaning- the floors were DISGUSTING. Then we headed over pick up our friend Mike when witnessed the worst accident I have ever seen. It literally unfolded before our eyes...
As we were pulling onto 185, still
on the ramp going about 55-60mph we see this red car swerve- and by
swerve I mean go completely perpendicular to the road. The red car( 3
cars ahead of us) ended up spinning off the highway and into the grassy bank on the right side, but then promptly
sped away. Then, the next thing we know this black tahoe (2 cars ahead of
us) crashes into a white sedan and pushes is completely off the road.
James and I pull over and I tell James to go see if anyone is hurt and I start calling 911. After I miss dial 911 and have to redial again,
I look up and James is waving at me to come over and the lady (probably
around our parents age or a little younger) from the tahoe is standing
behind her car screaming. So I think that she has just a dog or
deer....wrong. It was a man. So I immediately run up and this guy is
laying on the ground unresponsive with a massive pool of blood around
his head that keeps growing. I walk up on this guy, who happens to be the
Command Sergeant Major of the Ranger Battalion, kneeling at his side...(CSM is the highest
enlisted rank there is-I learned that after the situation). He is asking if anyone was a medical profession so I
told him I was a nurse and we started working together. We started to check him out- still unresponsive, not even responding to a
sternal rub. And his pupils were the pinpointed...not good. I told the CSM
to go get a flash light. At this point another guy rolls up and bring
his first aid bag as well. Thank God- because we needed A LOT of gauze. I
was literally about to tell them take off their shirts he was bleeding so
bad. This guy's head was completely cracked open- from about 5in above
his temple all the way to the back. I didn't get to asses the wound on
the back of his head because I wasn't going to move him, but that is
where all the blood was coming from. About 10min in he starts coming
around- he tells me his name and I check to see if he is oriented and
ask him about pain and his health history. Since we were all covered in blood it was comforting to know that according him he didn't have any blood borne diseases. From initial assessment he wasn't hurt anywhere
else- as in no other major bones were broken and his stomach was soft
and he didn't have a pain response when pressing on it. So I'm still
trying to hold his head still while he is trying to get up which ends up
working to our advantage because we were able to slip more gauze underneath the back of his head.
It was UNREAL. The ambulance finally arrived
about 20 min after I hopped out of the car. We told the police, who was
being a not nice person, what we saw and then left to go pick up Mike. Strange day. James worked the scene helping calm down the man's children, who were in the car with him, and talking to the 911 operator. He kept people out of the way and calm- what a good solider :)
While it was an awful wreck, I think the man will ultimately end up being OK as long as they can keep his brain from swelling. On a personal positive note, at least I still have some nursing skills...although I didn't tell the man on the ground that I was thankful for someone to practice on.
While I am sure that everyone would have managed just fine if James and I had left 10min earlier and missed the entire thing, I was glad to be there- to feel like I could help. I am so thankful for my knowledge and background and that I actually knew what to do and didn't have to just stand there helpless.
I am going to go read up on brain injury now!
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