Life and Death

It is interesting how one day can change your life. 

Thursday Jan. 29, 2015  
                  It began as a normal day.  Breakfast, walk to the VC. 8:15 group meeting, drive the government van to replace a piece of equiptment, then back to the library at the VC.  The next thing I remember is lying on a bed in a helicopter looking out at the desert flowing below my window.  Most of the day is pretty much gone, so here is what happened.  Bradycardia.  Very slow heartbeat leading to very low blood pressure, leading to loss of conciousness - I passed out in the library.  A fellow volunteer summoned help, in the form of the head Law Enforcement (LE) Officer who was just down the hall.  He and several other LEs came into the room as I was sitting up and then I went out again,  this tme my heart STOPPED.  All of the LEs are trained EMTs so I was given CPR, 58 compresses.  They paused to see if the AED would help.  It said "Do not use this device".  And while it was saying this I awoke and sat up !!  They were amazed.  My wife was in the room at the time, so I can't imagine what was going through her mind.
   I was put in an ambulance from Ajo, driven to the Ajo airport, put on a helicopter ( I remember a yellow helicopter) and flown to Banner Estrella Hospital in Avondale (sw suburb of Phoenix).  My memory begins again in the emergency room of the hospital.  I awoke hooked up to lots of wires and found nothing in my pockets ( they had been emptied) but my cell phone was still in the leg packet of my cargo pants.  I started sending emails and messages to my sons and calling my wife, but she was on the road to the hospital so I just left messages.  She arrived, I got taken to a room, had many tests and told that tomorrow, (Fri) I would be getting a pacemaker.