"Half Dead On Arrival"

In December of 2010, I got very sick.  Lucky for me, I was going to pick up my companion at the VA Hospital.  By the time I got there I was feeling weak and disoriented. My breathing was labored and no matter how deeply I breathed I felt like I was suffocating. I thought I was just having a really bad asthma attack, but it was much more than that.

  

I was so weak and out of breath I couldn't walk more than a few steps.  I called the hospital to send someone out with a wheel chair.  A nurse took me straight to the emergency room and I was seen immediately. They give me an aspirin and listened to my chest. They next gave an oxygen tube to tuck in my nose. As chills racked my body, I knew this was more than just an asthma attack; I had a fever of 103.

I was rather delirious and didn't remember much except when they came to do an arterial blood gas draw. There was someone screaming in the room and I didn't realize for a few moment that it was me. The feeling of the metal needle grated painfully and horribly against the nerves in my wrist. The doctor got the sample he needed and I slept, for five minutes.  An x-ray tech came in next and woke me for a chest x-ray.  A hospital is not a place where you are going to get any rest.

They came to draw more blood.  Thankfully not from my wrist but my arm where I noticed they had installed an IV in one of my plump veins in the crook of my arm.



Dr. Robert Paul



My doctor came in and said I was being treated for asthma exacerbation, pneumonia and a heart attack. My condition WAS serious; my oxygen level was only at 40 percent of what it should have been and my blood pressure was very high 220/170.  The blood sample they had taken from my arm showed that my platelets had started clumping together to form a clot.

Two hours after I came in I was on my way to a intermediate care ward. My eyes closed for a sweet moment and I thought I would sleep; yeah right.  Five minutes later I had an inhalation therapy session of albuterol, that would sooth my sore and swollen bronchial tubes and lungs; eventually. It was the first of dozens of treatments I would have.  Only problem was the medication made my heart race and I would get no sleep the rest of the night. I was also pumped full of antibiotics and steroids (no not the kind athletes abuse).

The days came and went and  it seemed like it took an eternity to get well. I was in the Veteran’s Hospital for nine days.  I received excellent healthcare from caring and professional employees.  If it was not for them, I do believe I would have died that night.

I no longer have the  strength to do many of the activities that require stamina and strength.  Lucky for me technology has made some things easier. I no longer have to haul the 5 pound folder that holds my medical records.  I now have a electronic medical record card. I can also measure my blood pressure without having to go to see a doctor. 

This near death experience has helped me appreciate even more the benefits of technology that helped save MY life. I do however, still have to take a bunch of pills everyday if I want to continue living!