Slow Down...

I was walking through the restaurant this morning, on the way to my office. I passed a co-worker, Kourtney, and said we said hello to each other. As I turned the corner, I heard him say something to me. I was kind of in a hurry and didn't understand what he said. I figured that if it was important, he would follow and repeat. I got to my office and started working. Within five minutes, several of the servers were at my door telling me to call 911- Kourtney had had some kind of accident. I rushed into the back room of the restaurant and there was Kourtney, lying on the floor convulsing. I didn't know what to do, but I figured it was best not to move him. While one of the servers called 911, I propped his head up a little and put some towels beneath it to cushion his skull from the step that it landed on when he fell. He could not talk- just moaning noises came from his mouth as his body shook and convulsed. I held his hand and told him to squeeze it as hard as he needed to if it would help the pain. I started asking everyone that passed by if they witnessed it. I wanted to know if he tripped, or slipped or what could've caused him to be in this condition. One of the servers said that she saw him grasp his chest with both hands and then he just fell to the floor roughly- smaking his head against the concrete floor. I encouraged everyone to disperse- and I sat on the floor with him, and continued to hold his hand and assured him that help was on the way. Suddenly I realized that he wasn't moaning anymore. He wasn't convulsing, he wasn't moving at all. I was scared that he might have died. Just at that point, the paramedics arrived. I moved away and let them go to work. I helped one of the EMT's fill out forms and the then I noticed that Kourtney was awake. They checked him out and moved him to a chair. They could find nothing wrong with him- his heartbeat was fine, there was no concussion. He refused a ride to the hospital, so I took him home where his brother could keep an eye on him for the rest of the day. I never heard anything else today, so I'm hoping that all is well. I'll call tomorrow to follow up.

I learned a lesson today. Slow down. When someone is talking to you- acknowledge it. Even if you are in a rush, they deserve to be heard or at least acknowledged. Who know-- maybe he knew something was wrong and he was asking for help. Maybe it was unrelated. As he lay there possibly dying (in my mind), all I could do was feel bad that I had walked away from him moments earlier. I'm not going to kick myself too hard over this one- just gonna take the lesson that I was given today and move forward.