Ready or Not, Here I Come

Last week, it was Friday the 9th, I had a gal in the ER who cut off her finger using a table saw.  She was a country girl but intelligent, very capable and with good, common sense.  I've had her there before with other family members.  She told me that about 2 weeks before, she had a dream and when she woke up, just before she opened her eyes, she heard God's voice.  It was like she and I were talking, she said. 

"You'll be okay, " God said to my patient.  "But be ready for Friday, March 9th."

Like Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men, I don't know what to make of that.

Look Around

I went to a funeral last week.  The son of one of my old hospice patient's died.  He was young.  The funeral was in a little, country church in the woods.  The preacher wore a blue plaid button-up shirt, not tucked in.  He was pretty country and when he spoke, I fell in love with him.  That's unusual for me, by the way.  I don't, as a rule even like preachers.  But there were two of them there that day and I liked them both quite a bit.  I liked the way they talked to the...sort of... "rough" crowd packed inside the tiny church that day.  Not like others I've seen, not
condescending.  Anyway.

At one point, one of the young man's friends got up and spoke about the deceased.  He kept saying, "Look around the room.  You never know who may not be here next week."  He said it more than once.

Skip to today.  It was my day off.  About 4:30 this evening the hospital called and said they had a big wreck with pediatric injuries flooding in and could I come and help out for a while.

It's been a long time since I got called in on a trauma.  Used to happen all the time.  In fact, I remember back before I was burned out, I'd be in a restaurant and hear a bunch of ambulances and just go on in to the ER when I got through eating to get in on it.  Now, not so much.

So I got dressed and went in.  Long story short, the guy who was speaking at his friend's funeral last week?  He was the driver of one of the vehicles.  He had his 3 kids with him.  They all had broken bones.  The middle one herniated his brainstem and died in the ER.  He was 14.