Heart to heart

This is a true story that happened on Thursday October 30th, 2008. This is my perspective of what I went through when my dad had a heart attack. I wrote this to help me heal. After writing this I felt weight lifted off my shoulders...BTW Dad is doing GREAT! (Sorry for the block writing)

The daughter was in the hospital room with her dad. He is in ICU due to a small heart attack that morning. He looked so pale. The father that was strong and full of life was there lying in the bed with wires coming out of his body to monitors that showed his erratic heart beat. She followed the IV bag to her father's left hand. She smiled at her father and asked how he was doing. His labored breathing told her that this was serious. It took her back to twenty-two years ago when he had triple bypass surgery. Seeing him after the surgery at such a young age frightened her. As she came back to the present she looked at the monitor as the blood pressure cup started to take his pressure. The yellow light at the top blinked in time of the beeping sounds. She is not a professional when it comes to reading vitals but she felt that something wasn't right. For a second another light blinked red. Oh c!@& she thought, that is not good. Something is going to happen. She got distracted by a women coming into the room introducing herself as a person in OT. The OT woman did her typical explanation of steps her father was to take to leave the hospital. The first step is getting out of the bed and sitting in a big chair. Just then there was this terrible beeping, that damn red light is blinking. The daughter looked at her father who was staring blankly into the air. His body went stiff and started to shake. His mouth was open, gasping for air. He can't breath she thought. She felt a wave of urgency. Just then the nurse ran into the room. I need to get out of the way she thought and let them save him. She grabbed her stuff and ran out of the room into the hall. All she could hear was code red, we need the crash cart now, and that damn beeping. All she could see is a swarm of people running frantically to her father's room, some with equipment. All she could feel is her heart racing and a big knot started to form in her throat. She doesn't remember the nurse escorting her to a conference room nearby. She busted into tears. What am I going to do now she thought? I need to escape. I don't want to be here. She felt herself go into fight or flight mode. Her thoughts were racing, her head was spinning. This can't be real. Just then one of the other nurses came into the room telling her that her dad is stable and she can go see him now. She walked with the nurses to her father's room. There were at least twenty people there. As she walked the people moved off to the sides of the entry way, like Moses parting the seas. The nurse gently guided her to her father's side. The daughter grabbed her father's clammy hand, squeezed it and smiled bravely. I hope he doesn't see that I was crying she thought to herself. She looked at his face and smiled. I am glad I was here for him she thought. When she looked at her father she could see that he was soaked from head to toe as if he had just stepped out of the shower with the hospital gown on and just laid down on the bed. She looked around the room to all the people in the room. She couldn't "see" their faces but she knew they were there. Some one told her that he was going to be alright. She could hear someone else say we had to shock him twice, that was quite a scare. The voices sounded like they were down a tunnel. She just couldn't comprehend what they were saying. The nurses were taking towels and wiping her father's face and arms dry. She instinctively grabbed a dry cloth and started wiping the arm that was connected to the hand she just couldn't let go of. The doctor wanted to talk to the daughter. She knew she had to get as much information as she could from him to report to family later. She reluctantly walked with the doctor and had a short conference. She hung on every word as she was anxious to get back to her father. She didn't want to leave his side, not after what she just saw. She went back into the room grabbed the chair and sat next to his bed. The excitement is over, now it was time to recover.