...story of my life

Life flight to base. We have twenty five year old Caucasian male, severe burns to legs, hands, face, and lower torso. Patient's vitals are stable at the moment, but blood pressure is steadily increasing. Patient also stated he was in pain and was having difficulty breathing. EMT's confirmed that patient has suffered internal burns as well. Pain meds were administered and patient is sedated. Estimated Time of Arrival is twelve minutes.

This is what I remember from my last day at work. Was this the beginning of the end for me? I wasn't going to fold because I hadn't any trump cards left in this game of life. It was time to renege and just pray that I didn't get caught.

At one time I used to be the jack of all trades and master of none, but that was until I had become a Boilermaker, or more less a high pressure welder. So what if the job was the dirtiest I ever had. I had a job I loved and a pocket full of money. Being an apprentice and a second generation Boilermaker was all I needed to give me the grandeur visions of the sugar coated life I was trying to achieve. I was on top of the world and it finally felt like my life was on the right track after 25 years of mistakes.

Life flight to base. We are approaching the landing pad. Patient is now in critical condition and his throat has started to swell. We will need a vent in place upon arrival.

As the life flight neared the landing pad there were several nurses awaiting the arrival of the helicopter. It's not an everyday thing to air lift patients to a hospital unless they are in a serious condition. The medical staff knew this and were adequately prepared as the helicopter was about to touch down.

"Okay!! Let's get the patient to the ER! Plastic surgeons are waiting to assess the situation. We have to finish cutting off his clothing to see how bad the damage is. The vent is in place in the ER!"

Slipping in and out of consciousness I could feel the gurney rolling down the never-ending corridor to the ER. The staff around me was scurrying. The sounds of their slip-on shoes shuffled together as if orchestrated. At this point, I felt comfortably numb to the commotion around me with only thoughts of the closest of family in my head. I couldn't begin to imagine how bad they would take the news of me being injured at work.

"Hello Mike. I'm Doctor Cederna. On the count of three we are going to lift you from the gurney onto a table so that we can finish removing your clothes and get you on the way to feeling better again..."

"Okay Doc"

"Here we go!! One.., two.., three!!"

The voices! The voices of the frenzied medical staff had started to become distant. Everything started to seem as if it we being played out in slow motion. The orchestrated sound of slip-on shoes becoming faint. I was no longer in control of my movements. Was I in control of what was to become of me? What about my family?

"Let's get the patient stabilized and prepped for the I.C.U. If I had to take a guess, this patient has burned probably about fifty percent of his body. Since burns can take up to forty-eight hours to run their course and actually stop burning, there is no need to take him to the tub room to get the wounds cleaned."

"Doctor", one of the frenzied nurses said, "The patient has a wallet with no contact info, but he does have a cell phone with him."

"Good. Let's see if there is a phone number for anyone we can contact, preferably his parents. In the meantime, let's get the patient wrapped loosely in some non-stick bandages as the swelling will increase significantly. Make a call and get an anesthesiologist down here. We are going to induce the patient into a coma because of the severity of the burns. Once we have him sedated we need to get the vent in before his throat swells shut. The pain is going to be unbearable if the patient wakes up and that's not what we want."

"Yes Doctor", the nurses replied in unison.

So there I lay, wrapped from head to toe in gauze, as if it was Halloween and I was dressed as a mummy with a tube down my throat. Every now and then I would take all my strength and any willpower I had left inside me, just to make sure I was still the one in control of my life, and open an eye. I plead to God inside my mind. "Please God; I know you call the shots. I know this is your world we're living in, but if you are taking me please give me one last chance to see my family while I'm still in physical form. One last glimpse of the ones I love to take with me forever. Please God, Please." Off to sleep I went.

At this point I was in an induced coma.

Finally I had awaked to see my family by my bedside sobbing. I tried to shout and tell jokes to let them know that the Mike they knew was still here, but they couldn't hear me. Why couldn't they hear me? I could here myself perfectly fine. Why were they crying? I was going to be okay, or so I thought.

"Nurse, NURSE!!!" I shouted. I had finally been acknowledged by one of the nurses.

"What DO YOU want?"

"I'd like something to drink. Would it be too much to trouble you for a damn soda?"

"If you want a soda, get up and get it your damn self!"

All the nurses turn to look at the spectacle I had become and began to laugh and point as if we were children on the playground and I was the fool who fell of the monkey bars.

Why were these nurses acting this way? I knew this whole scenario wasn't right so off to sleep I drifted again.

"Well Mr. and Ms. McDonnell", said Doctor Cederna.

"Please call us Jim and Marlene."

"If I could please have you calm down for just a moment I will try to explain your son's condition."

"CALM DOWN?!?" sobbed my parents. "Why is he so swollen up? Why do you have a tube down his throat? Is he going to live?"

"As you know your son was in an accident at work where he was burned significantly over multiple parts of his body. What we don't know is the percentage of how much of his body is burned. These first twenty-four hours are critical in your son's survival. If he makes it through the first twenty-four his chances of survival greatly increase. If he makes it through the initial forty-eight hours, he will survive. The swelling of your son's body is normal"

"But to the size it is now? For Christ' sake he's about tripled in size..." Jim screamed.

"Chris and Chris, thank god you guys are here! This hospital staff is cuckoo. I think they're trying to kill me..Hey, guys!!"

"Why what are they doing to ya Mike?"

"Last night they let me piss all over myself then let me lay in it. They didn't clean it up until just before you guys came. They also told me to get out of the bed and get my own damn soda, and kept pointing and laughing at me. There's something really funny about this hospital staff. I don't like it here."

"You sound tired Mike; maybe you should close your eyes and get some rest."

"Okay, Jaime! Lower me down the lead and the bucket of tools then come on down."

"I'll be down in just a sec. Something's wrong with my harness. Don't go in that hole until I get down there Mike."

It was a long drop into this ancient old coal burning boiler. It probably hadn't been run in decades. Lord knows why they would want to do any kind of maintenance to this piece of junk. What were they going to use it for? Man this place was dirty. Fly ash from the spent coal was on everything it could rest on. It even made it difficult to breathe because everything you touched sent this ash airborne.

"We need a doctor in ICU room four!! The patient is pulling the vent tube out of his throat, as well as the feeding tube. Get a doctor in here! Quick!"

"Did you bring me a respirator Jaime? This damn fly ash is making it hard to breathe down here."

"Of course I did Mike!"

I strapped on the respirator so that I could breathe a little easier. Jaime and I proceeded to open

the trap door to the entrance of the room where our work was.

"I gave the patient a sedative which will calm him down. If we have to, we can put restraints on his arms to make sure he doesn't pull the vent out", said the doctor.

"I don't think that will be necessary Doctor." Replied one of the nurses.

"This young man has about fifty family members and friends in the waiting room awaiting their 

turn to see him. It seems these rages only come after seeing a family member. Are you sure we

shouldn't restrain him?" one of the nurses implied.

We had finally got this fly ash encrusted door open. I was dark inside this little room where we had to go in and weld some plates to the wall. We still couldn't figure out the purpose of our work on this ancient boiler. There was no point in fixing this piece of garbage. It didn't even have electricity to power tools or lights. All the power we had was from our portable welding machines.

"Well I guess I'll go in and get these plates welded Jaime." I said.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go in and do it? It'll only take a few minutes."

"Nah. Just have one of those apprentices up top throw down some electricity and some drop lights."

I crawled into the hole with a drop light. I had all the materials I needed for the job. The little spots on the walls where the plates were to be welded were all prepped. Just as I put my welding hood on, the resistors in this tiny room started to hum as if power was restored.

"Jaime!! What's going on out there? There's not supposed to be power to anything in here except for what we brought!!" I screamed in terror. "I don't know what's going on Mike. Somehow the boiler has been fired up!! How the hell can that be?!?"

There I was in this little room of resistors that had started to hum and glow red as the power went through them. The humming sound was like I had my ear next to a 747 jumbo jet while it was taking off. At that moment I didn't need any light. The resistors had become cherry red all around me as I started to burn.

"Excuse me, nurse." said Marlene. "What's the matter with my son? Why is his blood pressure 198/133?"

"Well Ms. McDonnell, with the extent of Mike's trauma and his overall body temperature mixed with the combinations of drugs, his blood pressure will be on the high side for a few days."

"High side!" Marlene cried.

I awoke to see my very good friends from high school Matt and Tony. I hadn't kept in touch with Matt as much as I had Tony. I knew Tony since kindergarten at St. Mary's. We used like to smoke some left handed cigarettes once in a while, but at the present time I had out grown such childish things and our friendship remained.

"Tony, Matt, you guys have to get me out of here. The staff is brutal to me."

How is that?" they replied.

"When I have visitors the staff is cordial, but when everyone's gone they treat me like a prisoner."

"We can get you outta here if you want. We can arrange it for tonight."

"Most definitely!"

"You look tired Mike get some rest and we'll be back for you later tonight."

"Okay."

Later that night the staff came in and took me from my bed and put me onto a gurney. I could hear the muffled voices of the staff saying something about the operating room. Once again I was on a long journey down a never-ending corridor with the faint beeping of the blood pressure monitor in the background. I kept thinking over and over again that it was only a matter of time before Matt and Tony would be here to rescue me from persecution. From time to time I was able to open my eyes, but the lights streaming along the corridor were blinding. It was cold, very cold. Who was I going to tell with a tube down my throat?

"Hello Mr. McDonnell. We are going to perform one of several skin grafts on you today," one of the nurses said as they moved me from the gurney to the operating table. Somehow I was able to open my eyes and keep them open. As I was lying on the operating table I was able to see everyone in the OR. To my surprise I noticed the surgeon administer himself what I guess was morphine. At that moment I tried to get up and get the hell out. Why would the surgeon be taking morphine before he was going to perform surgery on me?

"What the hell are you doing doctor? You're not operating on me while on morphine!"

"Hush up! I'm the surgeon and you're the patient. The morphine helps to relax me and gives me a steady hand during the procedure. Besides, if you don't like it you're free to leave!"

I squirmed and squirmed, but nothing. I was strapped to the operating table. All the while, the surgeon was taking his own dose of morphine, as well as his interns. The laughter grew as I tried to escape. I knew escape was inevitable so I gave in and just lay there. Had Matt and Tony just been filling my ears with what I wanted to hear, or were they really coming to save from these wacko doctors and hospital staff? All I could do was wait.

The doctors proceeded to bring these long, steel flat bars into the OR. These bars were about eighteen inches long, quarter of an inch thick, and about an inch wide. What these bars were for I hadn't a clue. That was until the rolled me over onto my stomach and strapped me back down again. The doctors proceeded to put these bars vertically over my calves. How they got them to stay in place I dare to ask.

Once the operation was over I was taken back to the ICU room I called home. I was so doped up that I could only feel the discomfort of the bars on my legs.

"How did surgery go Doctor?" Jim and Marlene asked.

"There is significant damage to his legs, mainly his calves, but overall the first surgery went well." Doctor Cederna stated.

"We had to administer more anesthetic so Mike may be asleep most of the night. Tentatively, there is another operation scheduled for tomorrow."

I awoke to the sound of a helicopter outside my window. Over a loudspeaker I could hear the voice of Tony, "Mike, we're here for you man. Break the window and we'll throw you a rope to pull you out of here!"

In the meantime, sirens in the hospital started to go off as Tony broke the window. The sirens that blared were so loud I felt as if my ears were going to bleed.

"Come on Mike, we gotta go!"

"I can't get up Tony; I got these steel bars on my legs so I can't walk."

"Okay then, I'll come in for you!"

Just as Tony said that, in flew another chopper that shot down Matt and Tony's.

All I could think was that my only way out of this hellish hospital was Matt and Tony, and now that's gone. What was I to do? There was nothing I could do I could no longer walk because of the bars on my legs. I began to think. Was I dying and this was God way of repaying me for all the sins I had once committed? Or had I already died and stuck in purgatory? I would give anything not to be in the hell I was living.

"Well good news Mr. and Ms. McDonnell!" said Dr. Cederna. "It's been seven days since your son's accident and the swelling in his throat has decreased enough to take the vent out. Now we will keep him sedated for a few more days to ensure his comfort level."

"Oh thank you doctor" they replied.

"Nurse it is really hot in this room. Could you turn down the heat a bit for me?"

"Oh poor baby can't stand the heat. Well how about I turn it all the way up for you? How would you like that? Is that all you do is complain Mike? You act like you're the only patient we have!"

Several days had passed and so had several operations. The vent was taken out of me and they began to bring me back from the coma I was in. My parents had been there religiously waiting for me to become coherent.

"Hey mom! Where the hell am I? What happened to me?

Mom and dad both came over to my bed and began to cry as they hugged and kissed me.

"What's with all the emotions?"

"If you only knew" replied my father. "If you only knew."

"What the hell are these boots on my legs? Man they hurt like hell."

"Mike, you burned about forty percent of your body at work. You were in a drug induced coma for 10 days, and they kept you sedated till now."

"Ok, so what day is it?"

"Thursday" my father replied.

"Damn I got to get up and out of here. I've been in here over a week. That means my friend Steve's wedding is Saturday. I have to pick up my tux and I have to get a haircut. I have wedding rehearsal tomorrow! Give me a hand getting up will ya?"

Both of my parents stood there laughing at me and my ambitions. They knew the seriousness of my situation, and knew I wasn't going anywhere for quite a while. For a minute I tried to get out of bed, but found I couldn't move my limbs. I had been bedridden for ten days and had lost so much muscle mass that something as easy as lifting a leg was a task. I never really knew the extent of what had happened to me until the nurses came in later that evening to do a bandage change.

Later in the evening when the nurses came to take me for my bath was when the truth finally hit home. In the tub room, as the nurses unwrapped my bandages, is when the severity of my burns had become clear. I had suffered severe burns to the legs, hands, upper body, and face. By the time I realized what had happened, I already had five skin grafts. My legs and hands were burnt the worse, but despite my condition I was still alive. Even though menial tasks were by themselves tasks, I was able to learn how to walk again. The awful pain in my legs was from these big plastic boots the doctors had put on me while lying in bed. The purpose of the boots was to protect my new skin, and to keep me from becoming pigeon-toed from being in bed for so long. I had spent a total of six weeks at the University Hospital.

Everyday things began to have a whole new meaning as I began to heal. I used to talk about everything I was going to do when I got out of the hospital, all the places I was going to go, and all the people I wanted to visit. After a couple of weeks in the hospital I was on a first name basis with most of the nursing staff. I had survived trauma and lived. Life was grand again, and the hospital menu was quite exquisite; some of the best food I had ever tasted! Colors had become more vivid, smells more unique, and the sunlight much warmer and brighter than I had ever realized. Who could say they cheated death and won? I was given a second chance at life. A life that would have more importance; more meaning than just waking up and going to work, and never really slowing down to notice the little things that make life grand.

© Mike McDonnell 2004