Triple A's

“A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.”
-- Siddhartha Guatama Buddha

As you may or may not recall, one of my jobs is serving as an ER social worker in a busy regional hospital. This crazy, taxing, spiritual work delivers life lessons on almost every shift, and for that I remain ever thankful.

The other day a really bizarre thing happened.

We got two “triple A’s” (aortic aneurisms) within an hour of each other. Aortic aneurisms are the rupture of the aortic blood vessel. They cause pain, internal hemorrhage, and without prompt treatment, quick death. A “triple A” is quite rare, and often fatal, so the notion that I had to help two families deal with this potentially catastrophic event within the span of a single hour was particularly daunting…

The first man was in his early 60’s, with no medical history to speak of. He’d been having some belly and back pain for the past few days, and finally went to a walk-in clinic. They promptly sent him to the ER, as his belly was full of blood due to an aortic rupture that was rapidly reaching fatal proportions. He needed surgery and he needed it now.

This man was a low-key, happy-seeming fellow, well-dressed, kind and jovial. When I asked him who I should call, given that he was headed to surgery within minutes, he said, “Call my wife and have her call John – the sheep need to be fed and John can do that. My wife just had surgery herself, so I’m not sure she can get here…just be sure she tells John to feed the sheep.”

I made the calls, and his wife’s pastor arranged for a church member to pick his wife up and get her to the hospital, so she could be there when - and if - he woke up. (Aortic aneurisms have a 50-percent mortality rate.)

I let the surgeon and the nurse know what was happening, and the man’s parting words - as he was rolled off to a critical surgery - were, “Be sure my wife has John feed the sheep. It’s going to be cold tonight…”

The second “triple A” patient came in shortly thereafter.

He was in his early 70’s, and, like the first man, had been having belly pain for a few days – only his was more acute. His wife and son were with him, and they both looked haggard, and afraid, and very strong and hopeful when they were in the room with him.

The surgeon told his wife that her husband was “very sick” and “has a 50-50 chance of surviving this surgery.”

“We will do everything we can to save your husband,” the surgeon said, “but it’s in God’s hands…Call your family and friends. You’re going to need support to get through this, whatever the outcome is.”

That man’s wife, tearfully, and so bravely said, “We will be fine, no matter what happens...It’s in God’s hands now, and we trust God, no matter what…”

I stopped for a moment, replayed her words in my mind, and got back in touch with what really matters…So strong and clear, some of these ER families are…This woman, whose life was just fine about four hours ago, has now heard that her husband has a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery he must have, to have any chance of survival at all…How crazy must her life feel right now?
Both men survived their surgeries.

No small miracle there.

How thankful both those families must be…And, how strange and wonderful it must be to go home, having paid a visit to death’s door and not passed through…

The thing I took home with me, after that ER day, was a renewed understanding of just how fleeting and fragile life is…One minute a man is feeding his sheep or headed to the office. The next minute he’s flat on his back on a hospital gurney, hearing that he has a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery he’s about to have...

In other ER cases I’ve attended, the same lesson…One minute a UGA student is sailing down a hill on his bike...He hits a rock in the road and crashes…His backpack and papers fly everywhere…He ends up in the hospital with a bad brain bleed, no idea of who or where he is…

A young mother is headed to work, dropping her kids off at school on the way…An early morning drunk driver runs a stop sign and hits their car…The kids are okay, but mom has suffered a potentially fatal injury…Dad hasn’t been involved in years…Who to call to come take care of these kids?

An elderly couple, out for an afternoon of errands…The wife is driving because her vision is better…She makes a left turn into a shopping center, not seeing the 18-wheeler that has just run a yellow light in front of her…The truck hits their car…The wife is fine, but the husband, seated on the right side of the car, where the 18-wheeler just hit, is instantly killed by the truck’s impact…What does she do now, to go on living without her 50+ year companion?

Every day we get up, and go about our business, as if going about that business is guaranteed…The thing to remember is that going about that business is not guaranteed. Every day we get, that passes disaster free, is a profound blessing…Others will not be so lucky today…I’m not sure what we do with this information, except try, and try again, to be appreciative and thankful of each calamity-free day we are blessed with…and, to pray for and help as we best can, those whose calamity has come on this day…