Malfunctioning hearts
Platt, David K
MALFUNCTIONING HEARTS David K. Platt One thing I wasn't expecting at a service station was a malfunctioning heart. My attention had been focused on my old car, which has a catalogue of troubles...
...Now a red light had come on, signaling a defect in the electrical system...
...Everything had worked so well...
...I can see that pushing in and attending to her myself might have made the situation worse...
...I thought about what I should do, what the heroic thing would be...
...Now the young woman on the floor was awake, sitting up and looking around, murmuring to her friends...
...She said her name was Christine...
...Two men got out...
...I can say that because 911 was already on the line, there was nothing for me to do...
...As one gathered his gear, I pointed to where the girl lay, and told him she had been conscious, but had just gone under again...
...Her friends knew CPR, someone called 911, the medics arrived, and Christine's doctor will get her fixed up with some new, efficient, chemo-mechanical procedure...
...My knowledge of CPR is either general, or, as that of a zoologist, very particular and physiological...
...She was dying...
...Can I be that well-wired, my responses so perfectly coordinated with observation that I would stay so cool after a quick assessment of the situation...
...To my right the gas station attendant was making change at the till while two other young women bent over the dying girl, one pushing hard on her rib cage, the other blowing into her mouth...
...As always, though, the water pump bearing was dripping water, so I grabbed my water bottle and walked into the station...
...An ambulance was just swinging in as I stepped out of the lobby...
...I seemed barely more ruffled than if I had tripped over an unexpected rock that might have dropped off the blue face of a glacier...
...This station is in the new style...
...I refilled my bottle...
...For a moment I thought I might visit the hospital the next day to see how she was doing, but the impulse melted away...
...What about mine...
...She had penny loafers on her feet, and they were twitching...
...Death was right there, right between my feet, and I still tended my small mission, my water bottle and leaking pump...
...Just before I got there, a young man came out...
...Right inside the open door to the lobby lay a young woman, spread-eagled on the floor...
...I stepped back over her legs...
...in any event, it is book knowledge, and almost surely less help to Christine than her friends' practiced skills...
...The young woman was conscious again, talking to the medics as they pulled her shirt collar aside and fastened electrodes to her chest...
...OK," he said...
...As I walked past her I looked down into her large brown eyes and said, "Hey, you're back...
...A strangled croak came out of her...
...Her face was going dark grey now...
...As I drove away from the station, I looked back as the ambulance men were loading Christine on the gurney...
...I have tried to reassure myself by noting that everything seemed under control, that there was not much I could have done...
...A medic asked her if she had taken any drugs earlier in the day...
...But it leaves me suspicious...
...To my left someone was on the phone to 911...
...I couldn't come up with anything...
...I walked to my car to top up the reservoir, then returned to the lobby...
...His eyes were big, and he mumbled something about a heart attack...
...Surely a dying person called for something heroic, even in the lobby of a modern service station...
...His eyes, too, were a little big, but he was functioning as normal...
...I pulled into a neighborhood service station to check under the hood, but found everything in place-the fan belt, the alternator wires, the tensioning bolt...
...it is sensible and is the argument that I hear from my family...
...It is difficult to believe my reactions are so fine-tuned...
...During the entire episode, I am sure it never skipped a beat...
...This argument seems sound on the surface...
...there are no air or water hoses by the pumps anymore, so I made for the lobby where the snack machines and restrooms are...
...Her friends worked over her...
...A change in the sounds around the girl made me look over-she was down again, purple and convulsive as some invisible strangler clamped down...
...Her heart will work fine...
...I filled the coolant reservoir on my car, and returned to the lobby as an attendant came out...
...I went ahead...
...I stepped carefully over the young woman's legs and filled my water bottle at the drinking fountain...
...I still worry about mine...
...My attention had been focused on my old car, which has a catalogue of troubles centered around a leaky cooling system...
...She smiled a little...
...Her face was purple, darkening toward grey...
...I waited a half second for something more, thinking maybe he could use more information...
...She said no, that she had had these attacks before, that she was seeing a doctor to find out what was wrong with her heart...
...Apparently not...
Vol. 124 • August 1997 • No. 14
