At 08:30am, I made a 911 call for an ambulance. With a big thud that echoed reminiscent of a bullet gone off throughout the inside of our local church during morning mass, an old Vietnamese guy hit his head against the fourth pew from the back of the left side of the church.
To my left, I see his form lying to the right side upon the clay floor. I could see the bald, top of his head. Another Vietnamese guy to his immediate right offered to help the old man around his 70s to sit upon and lie down on the pew.
Nearby also, a VERY tall bearded guy had splatters of blood on his clothes, mostly his jeans. Blood was on the clay floor, the pew and upon his blue jeans and blue, long-sleeved shirt.
A `doctor` appeared to be administering smelling salt against the nose of the lying form. The old man is breathing and conscious but not responding to the smelling salt. I saw Ben place a handful of church books underneath the old man’s head. The `doctor` said don’t do that and the books were removed. Several old ladies wouldn’t get out of my way while I made the call from behind while observing and reporting back the incident.
The wound upon the head of this old man was SMACK dab in the middle of his forehead and about one inches long. It reminds me of a karma of a bullet wound not meant for him in the past but has now caught up with him in the form of hypoglycemia. I believe, according to Maw, that old man had another episode like that in the same church years ago.
While talking to the first person answering my 911 call, she inquired what is the emergency and the location. Then she forwarded my call to a dispatcher, who didn’t answer my friggin’ call for about one minute! The dial tone kept ringing in a steady pattern until another female voice answered. She inquired the EXACT location and I provided the street number and address, slowly and clearly to her per a convenient church bulletin sitting on the pew behind the incident.
She inquired further for my phone number but barely remembered the last two digits, which she repeated to me. I saw later on the number was handwritten by Paw on a white piece of paper and taped to the back of the cellphone! Damn!
Anyway, the San Jose Fire Department arrived at the scene after five minutes of the initial incident. None of the ungrateful old farts of Vietnamese or Chinese had cellphones to use and call for an emergency, except moi and another YOUNGER parishioner, which I verified with the second dispatcher as someone else calling in and probably as a verification for the incident.
I hope the old man is fine. I wonder if his health care plan will take care of him. I wonder if he has a health care insurance either. If not, I guess people like him (and moi for that matter) would just be processed to the bare minimum and sent home the same day. I know I too would need medical service soon because I’ve been feeling funny lately.
The three of us left quickly and I saw Fire Engine #E19 SJS pull up with a smaller fire truck behind this large one. Thank you.
Leave a Reply