stone savage

“You should have called an ambulance… another day or two and you could have died. - an angry bedside-manner-impaired Emergency Room Doctor at Vandenberg AFB, CA in 1990

I will never forget those words. I could have died. Me! I could have died for no good reason at the ripe old age of nineteen.

I remember lying in the trauma center room thinking about his words and feeling so afraid, freezing cold, and alone. I remember the very kind nurse who held my hand and talked to me. I remember watching her eyes move about as she spoke. I remember smiling when I figured out what she was doing and I struggled to speak. I asked her if she was just trying to distract me. She paused a moment then smiled with a true compassion as she admitted to the conspiratorial ruse just before the IV needle found its mark. I remember them flushing the fluids through me by squeezing bag after bag of fluids into my veins. I remember being confused and not understanding why any of it was happening.

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