Kinda long, but it is one of those things...
I posted a while back about my across-the-alley neighbor's blow to the head & brain injury (doing pretty well except for random blackouts; morale good).
Well, I encountered another neighbor with a brain injury.
I was cleaning out the garage & in the fornt yard when a fellow in his 70's walks from the sidewalk across my grass and addresses me, "I was hoping you could help me, as I have lost my way."
We introduce ourselves, exchange names & shake hands. I notice that he has an abrasion that had bled & dried high on his head. I queried on a couple of different tracks and come to figure that this guy is just plain unable to remember where he is/was or orient himself, despite his knowing that he lives nearby. His attitude is patient and pleasant and he doesn't succumb to frustration despite repeated failures to recall answers to my questions.
I come to the conclusion that he has some sort of brain disorder, I can't just send this fellow on his way, and that if I can not get any usefull information out of him that I am calling 911.
I finally ask him if he has a wife or someone he lives with...yes he does have a wife. Does he recall the phone number? Yep, everything but the area code. I hit pay dirt on the first try, PTL. "Ma'm, this is jfruser, do you know a man named 'Bud*' or 'Robertson*?'" She does. I tell her that he is in my fornt yard and is need of a ride home.
I am afraid I was somewhat short with her. Not mean, but kinda forceful. She was quite flustered and I wanted to focus her on the task at hand: getting directions and driving over. Luckily, I succeeded and she arrived a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, I kept up conversation, to focus his mind on me & the conversation, not on walking off. Bud is more verbally adept than 90% of the folks I meet.
Bud's wife arrives and I get a bit more detail as to why Bud is walking about. It seems that he was a minister at a local church and had a heart attack at a mall in 2004. The mall security got one of those auto-defibulators on him, but nothing doing. They do CPR unit the EMTs arrive. The EMTs do CPR among other things and finally, while in the ambulance, they give him the shock again, not knowing that the mall secuirty had already failed. Well, the EMTs got him going again, but he went for roughly 20 minutes on CPR, no hearbeat, no breathing.
Bud's organs, including his brain, had begun to die off in that 20 minutes. His body recovered fully, but his brain has not. He has been able to walk his own neighborhood without incident until today.
Bud & his wife are genuinely nice folks.
The somber story of Bud's ailment was relieved by two bright spots.
First, was Bud's grandaughter's wedding last year. She had always wanted Bud to be to be the minister that married her off. She asked him if he could still manage. Bud went to his office at church (the church kept his office intact after his heart attack) and riffled through his papers until he found a wedding he had done in the past that seemed suitable & customized it for his granddaughter. Bud was able to marry her and her husband. He did have to read his old notes the entire time, rather than do it from memory or extemporaneously, but he got 'er done.
Second, was the equanimity Bud and his wife displayed in the midst of their predicament. Bud did not allow himself to become frustrated or angry, despite his mind's betrayals. He knew that his mind is not what it once was and accepted it. His wife, too, displayed heaping helpings of equanimity despite their loss. Bud's wife said, "Seven doctors did their best with the gifts God gave them and the skill they refined and they still were unable to heal Bud completely."
As they drove off, my thought was that I hope someone takes 15 minutes if me or mine is ever in such a predicament rather than kicking us down the road.
* Pseudonyms
