CPR

You would not believe what happened to me the other day. I was in Kandahar and I went for a run…after 1.5 miles I found the body of a man on the side of the road. He was unconcious and gasping his last agonal breaths -- his heart had already stopped. I ended up doing CPR on him all by myself on the deserted side of the airfield -- I couldn't believe it. It looked really bad for this guy. In the middle of nowhere, by myself doing CPR. Then another runner came up and I turned him back to get help. He was from the Netherlands. He came back pretty quick with some guys in a minivan he hijacked who didn't speak english but we scooped this guy up into the middle seat and took off leaving all the other passengers out there in the desert. The driver didn't know where the hospital was but he was flying to find it. I was so focused on the cpr and not falling down in the van that I hardly noticed the door was open and our patients legs were hanging out…fixed that and moved on. They found a little clinic and the guy riding shotgun got out and ran inside. I knew this wasn't going to do so I yelled to some Soldiers and asked if they knew where the hospital was and one said yes so I shoved him in the passenger side and just yelled to the driver to go! Go! GO! Everybody was good about it and we got to the ER, got the man inside and then the ER doc took over and started with shocks and meds. This went on for about an hour with his heart rhythm coming and going. I eventually had to leave but checked back in before I flew out and he was in a normal rhythm and looks like he'll make it. When I got back home I checked my run data on the watch and couldn't believe it – it was probably 18 minutes total time from the time he went down until he was on the table in the ED. That's incredibly fast. It was great that all these guys from all over the world so readily jumped in to help. Anyway, it's good to have good things happen when the days are tough.