Shattered

The scene on this chilly early spring night transcended from me alone dimly lit from above near the garage and sat still momentarily becoming aware of the occasional neighborhood dog barking. I didn’t contemplate, I didn’t think at all and that is the secret that I can recognize in retrospect. I was content. Complete tranquility. Happy. And this didn’t change right away. From a sleepy, non-descriptive suburban development, home, driveway and life was grabbed by a lose thread of a life and unraveled it as if it was pulled unexpectedly torn on a rusty nail while brushing by a fence in disrepair. But I didn’t see the mess it created. Despite the cacophony around me I absorbed it, one stimuli at a time…conscious, aware and more curious than disconcerted. One ambulance, 4 EMT first responders, two police cruisers and 4 cops. Allison shared what she knew which was limited. She found me sitting there in the car and unable to get more than one word at a time out of my mouth.

One of the EMTs kneeled in front of me. He asked me a number of questions:

-“What is your name?” No response from me.
-“Where are you? No response to me.
-“What is your birthday? No response again.

In each case I tried to answer. I really did but the words wouldn’t come out. The EMT stood up to speak with Allison and as quickly as he was in front of me, I forgot he ever existed. And then I saw my neighbor, Sven. Sven and his lovely family are from South Africa and we were lucky enough to have their teenage daughters often come to the house to babysit. Sven and his youngest daughter, Kirsty came across the street and passing the tumult that was impossible to avoid in the quiet Wednesday evening. Kirsty followed closely behind Sven to see us while staying out of the way of the team. And while I was watching Sven’s face I was conscious of the fact that the only things I was looking at, hearing and understanding was Sven. Not Allison, the cops, the EMTs or even Sven’s daughter who stood right next to him, holding his hand. Sven hadn’t uttered a word. He stood maybe 25 feet away but it was like I had a camera lens of a movie that zoomed in on Sven’s face. His countenance of concerns, his wispy, thinning front hair, the back angling brow and 1 day’s worth of stubble. And I was completely present with Sven without a word from either of us. As focused and locked-in as I was with Sven that moment passed fluidly into looking at Kirtsy. Like while looking at Sven and now again with Kirsty, everything else seemed to lose its fidelity; Sounds, depth, smell, touch, texture and peripheral vision. But what was lost in the moment’s context of all five senses was made up by making the subject insanely acute. Like looking through a portal using High Definition and headphones with surround sound. But the screen was not huge like an I-Max…. it was small through the looking glass.

The next scene panned to the EMT again and now I was being helped into a stretcher. I was wrapped in blankets and secured before they rose me up on the stretcher. I was aware I was going into an ambulance. Allison looked at me, kissing me and told me she would meet me at the hospital. “They’re going to take care of you. “I’ll take care of you.” And with that I was put into the back of the ambulance. The doors closed behind.

Inside the ambulance everything was heightened. The lights were brilliantly blinding. The open and closing of cabinets were deafening. The ripped sound of a new IV was heard loudly inside my head, not just outside. One tech began the IV while another wearing latex gloves and looked at me closely. “Mr. Salvati, who is the president?” I focused and I looked deep inside the irises of the eyes of the tech and his over gelled hair and I confidently said to him, “Omama.” And I heard it myself too. “Omama.” “Why did I say that?” I was thinking to myself. He asked me a couple more questions and I couldn’t get another word out of my mouth. In my head “Omama” kept echoing inside the cavern of my head, unable to focus on anything else let alone answer to another question. And then I stopped listen to my mind and came back to listening and focusing on what the EMTs were saying and doing despite how loud it all sounded to me. And next what happened was the precise moment that my calmness was abruptly, rudely ended. The EMT’s who were speaking to each were as if the three of us weren’t in the same room let alone in the back of a moving ambulance. That was rude enough but I never expected to hear one EMT to say out loudly to another, “This guy must have been doing a lot of drugs.” I was enraged but couldn’t speak a word and with my right hand I made a fist and hit my thigh. I did it again as if to protest the indictment, implication, possibly endangered me and worst of all he shattered the closest I’ve ever been to complete tranquility.

What happens at the hospital comes next…


DID YOU KNOW? On average, every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke.