-.-
God, I feel awful. Today, in my public speaking class, not thirty minutes ago, a classmate of mine had a seizure. Possibly complicated by some other things, too, since she looked ill before her body began seizing (she had a light cough and had had to leave the room to get a drink or something earlier.) Needless to say, class was dismissed very shortly and I walked out of the room feeling horrible.
First, I need to say that I have always been the type of person who has always been confidant that they can act calmly and rationally in an emergency. My panic reflex, instead of causing hysteria, pumps my brain with various chemicals and allows it to function at absolute peak efficiency (with the result being that, when I have plenty of calories, sugar and caffiene in my body and go into panic mode, I do stuff with the greatest expedience and efficiency. Granted, I crash after that, but it's allowed me to write an A- paper from scratch in six hours.) So here I am, with my fortuitous panic reflex as well as my first aid training, and I have no idea what to do. It's not an athsma attack. I've had those, and they don't look like that. She hasn't indicated any left-arm pain, is pretty much exactly my age and so is too young for cardiac arrest unless it was caused by something else. She has about exactly as much body fat as she should, so diabetes or fatty deposits in the blood are exceptionally unlikely. The most likely suspects, in my opinion, are an allergic reaction or a compound illness. I sincerely hope it wasn't too bad. I've had asthma attacks, as I said. I've felt the horror of my trachea constricting and preventing me from taking in the amount of oxygen to which I am accustomed, of losing control of one of the most basic biological processes. I would be utterly terrified if that lack of breath stimulated a string of random and possibly violent nerve impulses. Moreover, a total loss of physical control concurrent with barely getting any air would put someone in a very bad position when it comes to staying alive.
I do hope she's okay. I could have helped her, but I failed. I could have turned out her purse and sifted through it for any medicine. I could have called 911 and described her condition. I could have removed my hoodie and stuck it under her head to provide cushioning. I could have done any number of minor things to aid her, and I didn't. And me with all my experience with almost dying (four asthma attacks is a lot) and I didn't help someone who might have also been in a similar situation. I didn't even check to make sure that she still had breath and a pulse (breath was at least partially a given, since her chest was expanding and contracting and she was giving light coughs on occasion, but it would have still been practical to check.
I have class in seventy minutes. I have to head to class in fifty-five minutes. Less if I want to get something to eat. I really don't want to go to class, but it's a once a week course. Maybe I will stay home. I don't know if I could even work up the energy to go to Taco Bell to get something to eat, much less class.
First, I need to say that I have always been the type of person who has always been confidant that they can act calmly and rationally in an emergency. My panic reflex, instead of causing hysteria, pumps my brain with various chemicals and allows it to function at absolute peak efficiency (with the result being that, when I have plenty of calories, sugar and caffiene in my body and go into panic mode, I do stuff with the greatest expedience and efficiency. Granted, I crash after that, but it's allowed me to write an A- paper from scratch in six hours.) So here I am, with my fortuitous panic reflex as well as my first aid training, and I have no idea what to do. It's not an athsma attack. I've had those, and they don't look like that. She hasn't indicated any left-arm pain, is pretty much exactly my age and so is too young for cardiac arrest unless it was caused by something else. She has about exactly as much body fat as she should, so diabetes or fatty deposits in the blood are exceptionally unlikely. The most likely suspects, in my opinion, are an allergic reaction or a compound illness. I sincerely hope it wasn't too bad. I've had asthma attacks, as I said. I've felt the horror of my trachea constricting and preventing me from taking in the amount of oxygen to which I am accustomed, of losing control of one of the most basic biological processes. I would be utterly terrified if that lack of breath stimulated a string of random and possibly violent nerve impulses. Moreover, a total loss of physical control concurrent with barely getting any air would put someone in a very bad position when it comes to staying alive.
I do hope she's okay. I could have helped her, but I failed. I could have turned out her purse and sifted through it for any medicine. I could have called 911 and described her condition. I could have removed my hoodie and stuck it under her head to provide cushioning. I could have done any number of minor things to aid her, and I didn't. And me with all my experience with almost dying (four asthma attacks is a lot) and I didn't help someone who might have also been in a similar situation. I didn't even check to make sure that she still had breath and a pulse (breath was at least partially a given, since her chest was expanding and contracting and she was giving light coughs on occasion, but it would have still been practical to check.
I have class in seventy minutes. I have to head to class in fifty-five minutes. Less if I want to get something to eat. I really don't want to go to class, but it's a once a week course. Maybe I will stay home. I don't know if I could even work up the energy to go to Taco Bell to get something to eat, much less class.