Yesterday in Buzzy’s Country Store much of the conversation focussed on the Buffalo Bill player Damar Hamlin and his cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football (MNF.) One of my Buzzy visitors, who knew from experience, discussed the differences between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack something I never knew but never really thought about either. (If you want to pursue knowing that difference click here.)
At the time of the MNF incident, I was in the St. Mary’s Hospital Emergency Room with my 90 year old Father-in-law who had had a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. He was fine otherwise, but we didn’t want to take any chances and thus we were holed up in a waiting room waiting to be checked out.
The ER was packed and the admitting lady informed us that because it was what they call Medical Monday, they were always crowded on Mondays. When I asked her why that was, she said “I don’t know, but it might have something to do with what people did over the weekend.” (I found an article discussing higher ER visits on Mondays and learned that it is not just a St. Mary’s County phenomena but occurs in other places too (click here.)
One of the ER nurses tending to us commented on the football injury and asked if we had heard about it. Brady had texted me a few minutes previously that the injury had occurred and that the game was suspended. I asked the nurse if she knew what had happened. As she left the room she said, “I’ll check and let you know.”
Given that the ER was so packed, I figured “Yeah right, we’ll never see you again.” But sure enough, a few minutes later she popped back in to say “It’s cardio, but we can fix that. If he was paralyzed with a spinal injury or something else, then it would really be bad.”
As she left us, I turned to Sol and said “Gotta love ER nurses. It’s cardio, but we can fix that.” Sol then told me about his open heart surgery for A-fibrillation and the subsequent installation of his pacemaker. He concluded saying “She’s right. They can fix it.”
Here’s hoping that they can fix Damar Hamlin.
As for how Sol made out, a Doctor checked out his nose, saw the source of the bleed and cauterized it. We were able to walk out of the ER a short time later around 10 p.m.. The place was still packed.
Music-wise, Sting’s line here at the 00:59 mark often plays in my head when I am churning and burning a little more than I should be doing so: “It’s not healthy to run at this pace.”