I lost my best friend, my Dad, to this affliction

by Lee Grim Jr.
(Ladson, SC U.S.A)

One day my father was fine. We went to the dump to take some yard debris away and dispose of it. We came home and things were pretty much normal.

I fell asleep around 14:00 and woke up at 15:30. My mom had gone to get the grand kids as they would be going to their father's house.

I woke up needing to go badly to the bathroom and my Dad was in there. I was going to knock but decided to let him be.

My Mom came home and asked where my father was. I told her. She was gone just thirty minutes. She picked the lock and opened the door and I saw my Dad's legs on the floor.

I turned to my eldest nephew and said call 911. I am a medic and was trying to get my Mom out of the bathroom so I could start to assess the situation and begin CPR.

He was a big man, and he was face down. His head and neck were purple, no pulse. Vomitus was around the corners of his mouth and I knew he was dead.

As a medic I saw this scenario many times. But this was MY DAD! I immediately pulled my self together and was able to flip him over. I tried to clear any blockages in his throat and began CPR. I don't know how long I was doing CPR when the first responders came.

They helped me drag him to the living room where his shirt was cut off and an AED attached. No shock was available. ( He had two bypasses in his heart; one in 1995 and another in 2011. The last Christmas was 2014 and he had to hospitalized for atrial flutter.)

The firefighters continued with vigor to try to save him. The Paramedics arrived and put him on a EKG. While waiting for a sign of something, anything, all I saw was asystole, flat line.

The paramedic called it. He was gone. I hope this story helps to save someone with a weak heart and spare the family what we went through.