It pains me to admit I'm sick. Ever. But after last Thursday's brush with death in London, I still have to admit to it, but at the same time I still admit to having relatively great health and fortune.
What caused my sudden introspective on sickness and mortality? It all started with a night without leaving the bathroom. Which led to a sick day from my job covering the London Games as a videographer.
When I tried to toughen up and report to work the next morning, they took one look and sent me to the medical folks. They hooked me up with some pills, scheduled a driver and sent me back to the hotel for some rest.
On the drive home, I concentrated on not getting sick and made almost no conversation with the driver, who made occasional grunts I thought were directed at traffic. Glancing up for one second, I suddenly saw the car veer right and bounce off the concrete street divider in a crash that quickly shook any calm I had restored to my system.
Once the car was somewhat under control and after a few "oh bloody he**s" we continued on, but I noticed a biker on our left who kept looking back at us, perhaps in fear that he was the next obstacle to be smashed. Our driver seemed to make a face at him and I laughed for a second, but then realized that he didn't make the face on purpose -- his entire body was seizing up. He gasped for air as he also grabbed the stick shift, which thankfully took the car OUT of gear as his foot stomped the gas and revved the engine as his legs stiffened.
As the car came to a stop, but the engine whined loudly in neutral, I jumped into the front seat and quickly found a pulse on the man's neck. Is it mean to say I really wasn't looking forward to doing CPR? Holding him in the car with one hand, I waved down help with the other then checked his mouth for anything that could choke him, worried my finger would get bit!
The seizing stopped and his eyes rolled back. This was surely a witness to death, but as I scrambled to find a pulse again he began ... snoring. Not quietly, but the loud cartoon snore. As bizarre as this was, it calmed me because if he was asleep and breathing, at least he was alive.
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Police eventually arrived and my lack of heath class memory confused me: I thought it was not good to wake someone after seizure as they may become violent -- or was that for sleepwalkers? When the ambulance arrived, medics did manage to wake him, but unfortunately it was before they got him on the stretcher. That was a debacle because this short, stocky guy was now swinging his arms wildly as they tried to lock him into a stretcher and get him to a hospital.
Once we completed the police report with the bobbies, another car took me to the hotel. And I made sure to keep a conversation with the driver over the entire route.
Chris Kerwin is an NBC4 videographer covering the 2012 Olympics in London.
