[Oiler41]

What is on my mind today, is the same thing that has been on my mind for the last two days, one of my guys at work, Lupe (Loopay) L. I had the day at work that as the manager of health and safety for a business, you think about, train for and mull over in your mind what could happen and how you might respond. On Thursday morning at approximately 9:30 a.m., Lupe was found on the floor in his work area. He was not breathing, he had no pulse and he had lost all bodily functions. Two things had happened; the first that we suspected but were not sure of at that moment, was that he had a massive heart attack. We later found out at the hospital that the main artery to his heart was 100% blocked. The doctor termed it "sudden death" because of the blockage. The second thing was that when the heart attack hit him, he had a mouth full of food and subsequently sucked that food into his throat so we knew he had choked. We didn't know how long he had been down, and we still don't know.

The emergency call came out for me. When I got to him, two employees were trying to do what they could; Jose was periodically rolling him up on his side cleaning out his mouth and laying him back down and Roman was doing chest compressions on him when he was on his back. There was no doubt that his airway was obstructed and he was dead. His face was blue. I immediately started trying to simulate a Heimlich maneuver while Lupe was on his side. Martine, who is a very large, robust man, got there and we stood Lupe up and Martine performed an upright Heimlich maneuver; the blockage still wouldn't come out. We put him back on the floor and I tried twice more to dislodge the obstruction and it finally came out. It seemed like an eternity had passed but all of this happened rapidly. Lupe needed air.

Roman continued the chest compressions and I started artificial respiration. In all honesty, I didn't know if I could do it. The employees who were helping, and all the bystanders just couldn't go there and it was damn well one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I gave Lupe two breaths and the color in his face momentarily came back, but then he turned blue again. More chest compressions, more breaths. Then the EMS people arrived and took over. They had a hard time getting the tube in Lupe's throat so they could bag him with air. They suctioned his mouth trying to help get the tube in and it finally went in. They jump started his heart twice on the scene and then quickly loaded him up headed for the hospital.

The HR manager and I went to the hospital to meet with Lupe's family. He was still alive, blood flow had been restored to his heart, and he was breathing on his own, but he was on a ventilator just to give him help. The concern was how long had he been without air. They started a hypothermia protocol to lower his body temperature. The doctor said that now we had to wait. 24-72 hours. We are almost at the 48 hour mark as I write this.

Fast forward 24 hours from when we found him; they tried activating his gag reflex manually; no response. They poked his eyes; no response. He apparently has enough brain function left to breathe and pump his heart, but all indications so far are that there isn't much else there. They started bringing him out of the hypothermia encouraging everyone there with him to talk to him to try to bring him out of it. Around 4 p.m. yesterday, Lupe had another heart attack while in ICU; the hospital staff made everyone leave and then called his family back in and they called for a Priest to administer Last Rites. I called this morning; he is still listed as critical. His eyes are open, but there is no reponse; there is no withdrawal to pain stimulation. Unless something really drastic happens today to turn things around, I don't see much hope for recovery.

I've been struggling with this since it happened. I know that we did all that we could to save him before EMS got there; I know that EMS did all they could to save him on the way to the hospital, and I so had hoped after listening to the doctor, that Lupe might make it through this. On some level, I still have hope now. As I've replayed the whole scene in my mind, I can't really think of anything I would have done differently or could have done differently. Time was apparently not on our side from the start, and the difficulty dislodging his airway obstruction just made things worse. The brain can only go 6-9 minutes without oxygen before severe brain damage occurs.

So today, I have a different perspective on this. 31 years ago I got the call about my brother; not that he was in the hospital, but that he was dead. 25 years ago, my father died in a similar fashion as to what has happened to Lupe, literally just dropping dead. I didn't get a call that my dad was in the hospital; I got the call that he was dead. So I can only take some comfort in that at least all of his children, his wife, nieces, nephews and grandchildren get to see him, albeit in a difficult way. They are having the chance to see him and likely say goodbye, and to follow their religious belief of Last Rites; all a part of closure and the grief process.

There is some advice I want to offer up. Go learn CPR; you never know when you may need it. When the HR Manager tried to reach his family, the contact information on file was no good. The only way we were able to reach a family member was because another employee's wife worked with Lupe's niece so she got the call. Make sure your emergency contact information at work is good. Update it when things change. Don't use a home phone number of someone who works the same hours you do. In most cell phones, numbers appear before letters so put a contact in your phone with the name "4Emergency Contact" so that it will be the first item in your cell phone list of contacts.

This has been one of the toughest moments in my career. We train, we plan, we act. Sometimes that just isn't enough if the circumstances just don't go exactly the way we would hope they would go or the way we need them to go to achieve a different outcome. I'm thankful that after this event I was able to come home to my wife to tell her that I love her. She is my anchor and has certainly been here to help me work through all of this. Sorry for the long post, but I needed to write this all down and this community has given me a place to feel safe in doing so.

Glynn