i was NOT at work today. but being a nurse often translates to life outside of the hospital. i frequently get into situations where my nursing skills come in handy. sometimes it's my loving, yet forceful nudge to get my dad to go to the doctor. "no dad, your cut on your finger shouldn't bleed for 8 hours - you need stitches!" but every now and then, it's a bit more serious. and with total strangers.
today i was hanging out with my dear friend, emma. we seem to get into trouble together often - emma was ditching work, i was avoiding working out/rainier training. we were enjoying one another's company, when all of a sudden...
as we were driving on rainier avenue north, we passed a woman, completely toppled over, lying on her back, STIFF as a cadaveur, with her right hand bolt-upright holding a half smoked cigarette. she was at a bus stop and nobody was helping her. it looked as if she had died while smoking one last puff.
going 35 mph, we passed. then looked at one another. and decided to stop. are we good samaritans? or just stupid? neither of us would have felt okay the rest of the day had we not offered our services and so, after discussing CPR (30 chest compressions and 2 breaths), we headed over.
the lady looked horrible. her skin was ashen and weathered. she was wearing a burgundy, polyester coat. her dentures were dirty. and she had nail fungus on her left hand. it took a minute or two to get her to respond, but eventually, we discovered - she was not dead, just incredibly intoxicated.
i couldn't believe nobody else had stopped. she REALLY looked dead. rainier and dearborn is a highly trafficked intersection, so numerous cars sat and starred, probably laughing at us nice, young women offering help to a dirty, disadvantaged human. the world is strange. emma pointed out that if i had keeled over - a young woman, dressed in nice clothes, with a clean appearance - someone would have probably stopped. but sadly, no one seemed to give a damn about this woman.
i asked if i could help her up, if she needed anything. did she want medical attention? did she need an ambulance? was she okay? all she wanted was her case worker. when i explained her situation, that she was looking half dead on the sidewalk of a busy intersection and that her case worker was unavailable, she then replied with, "i just wanted some sun..."
so we left her, lying in yoga's dead body pose, on the concrete, baking in her polyester coat, worshipping the sun.
*** imagine the irony. a very similar situation happened to emma and i once before, maybe 2 or 3 years ago. i'll spare you all the details. but the final response we got from a nearly comatose, also inebbriated man was, "just catching a buzz..." ***
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