Modern Vespa

Below is my original post from about May 2014. I had to take it down for a while due to litigation from the victim against the Port of Oakland.
Here's the story.

I work at the Port of Oakland, amidst thousands of trucks, containers, longshoremen, ships and traffic. It's a hectic place, and is often dangerous. My job includes first response to emergencies and public safety issues.

Two months ago I was flagged down by a trucker, who claimed that another trucker was injured badly, on the ground, bleeding from the head and unconscious. I ran to where the trucker laid on the roadway and found the trucker had no pulse or respiration, had a fractured eye socket with his eye prolapsed outward, a nasty laceration that went from his right eyebrow to his hairline, and a skull fracture on the back of his head about the size of the end of a soda can that was oozing gray matter. The trucker was locking down a 50,000 pound container onto his chassis with a metal cheater bar, and when the container fell into place, the bar had hit him in the face. When he fell backward onto the roadway, he fractured the back of his skull.

I called for an ambulance and for my team to come with a medical trauma kit. My team arrived in about three minutes, but in the meantime, I brought the trucker back with CPR and applied pressure to his head wounds. When my team arrived, we used gauze and clotting agents to control the extensive bleeding. The thirteen minutes for the ambulance to arrive seemed like a lifetime. The ambulance scooped up the trucker and rushed him away to the hospital.

A follow up call to the hospital the next morning revealed he made it through the night. I have not been able to learn anything more about him since. He's been on my mind every time I pass that part of the Port, and I've Googled his name fifty times to see if there is a report about it, or, worse, an obituary. The fact I haven't seen an obit for him has been my only reassurance he made it.

Why I'm posting this.
Today, I stopped by a taco truck in the Port. A trucker spotted me and approached me asking if I remembered him. I told him yes. This was Herbert, the trucker who flagged me down to help his friend German. Herbert told me that German spent two weeks in the hospital, one of which was in a coma, and then went home to recover from his injuries. He said German has recovered and is healthy enough to return to work, and should be back soon.
He thanked me profusely for "staying calm and saving German's life."

This choked me up. I don't think I did anything out of the ordinary for me. I just got involved and used the training I've been given. If anything, I just gave German a fighting chance. He's the one who battled his way back from death. I'm solemnly humbled about it.

We, as riders, tend to be the ones who go out and get involved in stuff. If I can ask you guys, the MV family for one thing... Please brush up on CPR training and basic first aid. CPR works.

https://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/quickcpr.html

Thanks for taking this in.Steve H/B

Having almost 50 years as firefighter with 13 of those as firefighter/paramedic I have only one thing to say.

Job well done.

Cheers to you Honey Badger. You have done a good thing my friend. I am proud.

I will take a CPR - First Aid refresher and get certified again.

It's been good news all around today!

Well done Steve!

Thank you for the friendly reminder. I will re-up my certification.

You're a real hero, Bro..!

I did a CPR/First Aid refresher about five years ago and still have the practice gear sitting in my office.

If you guys can get training, I suggest you do so whenever it's possible to do so...

More attention should be given to people who know CPR, just like you. It's essential that we as a people help each other.

You did what you were trained to do and you saved a life. Never forget this.

Good for you HB. Now people take videos. I had to do CPR once in the middle of nowhere on the Bio Bio river in Chile. The other rafting company didn't really screen their clients. The guy shouldn't of been rafting. He fell out and went thru a few really bad rapids. Hoping the cold water would help him but i couldn't revive him.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Judy, it's interesting you brought up people just taking videos... As I started an assessment of the downed trucker, I looked up to see who I could assign tasks. There were about a half dozen truckers who had gathered and were videoing everything on their cell phones. I don't get it.

And regarding some we can't save... It's not really up to us to start with. Our role is to give the victim the best chance as possible to come back.

I hold a special spot for the three previous CPR recipients I've worked on without a revival. I will always remember them, although they were strangers. (A 60 year old Indian woman named Dita. A 81 year old German man named Hans, and a 18 month old baby named Dalton) May they all rest in God's grace and know that I tried...

But, I will celebrate that German, the injured trucker, made it off the oil stained streets and will keep enjoying his family and friends. I would like to meet him again someday, under better conditions of course.

Well-done, HoneyBadger.

Glad it came out well. Right on all counts.

As you well know, that stuff gets into your head. A few years back I was starting a romantic weekend alone with my wife, we stopped for lunch at a coffee shop and an elderly gentleman behind me decided it was a good day to die.... shop owner and I did CPR (funny, neither one of us thought about switching). After 5 minutes or so, the paramedics arrived, set up the AED....you always wonder what's going on, unless they start breathing, but the flat line EKG was pretty clear. Shocked him once or twice, got back normal rhythm and out the door.

Spent the next hours trying to tame my adrenaline and stop jabbering, the next week discussing it with my wife, wondering if he made it, then went to Googling obits (no idea why I didn't just call the coffee shop-guess I assumed they didn't know him. )

A few weeks later I got a package with a t-shirt and a pound of coffee thanking me for "helping save Mr. Johnson." Wow, he made it...*fistpump*
A week or so later a thank-you note from the man himself. I could finally relax. Not the same feeling when you lose, but if you don't try, they're dead anyway. Hey, it's a bit of training, and a bit of effort at the scene, and lives change. How easy is that?

great story, thanks for sharing.
As a lifeguard trainier in the uk I've always been in favour of getting more people trained.
In the UK we now 'offer' hands only cpr as an option if the idea of mouth to mouth is too off putting

http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/life-saving-skills/hands-only-cpr-faqs.aspx

once again well done honeybadger

That, is a great story with an even better ending. Thank you for sharing.

Exactly this.

I love that tale Fledermaus! Good on you too!

I can totally see that MVer's get involved. We are drawn to the openness of riding, 360 degree awareness of what is going on around us, and being engaged in the environment. I'd be willing to bet that we are the more dynamic ones in the workplace, the social ones on the block, and the ones people tend to go to in order to make things right. Just a theory.

That's why I encourage our members to take a refresher course. It' easy. It just takes a desire to get involved. It's cool. 8)

Cheers!

Another firefighter/EMT here.

The fact that your patient made a full recovery after a traumatic cardiac arrest, with skull fracture and brain matter showing... This is practically a miracle.

Congratulations.

I was blown away by Herbert's comments. I've seen some gnarly stuff, and this was up there in severity. I am surprised at the news, as I've seen TBI's before, and I didn't expect this guy to have a quick recovery if at all. We'll see if I can connect with him in the future..

Steve. H/B

My thoughts too....didn't look all that survivable.

Mouth to mouth is becoming far less important in CPR. Effective chest compressions are far more important.

Honey badger are you chasing ambulances or something? I am an ED nurse, it is rare for us to come across that amount of CPR situations outside of work.