Dead on the floor

"You're having a heart attack. We're fixing your heart," the doctor told me. "Try to calm down." Westerhold I was on the table, in the cath lab at Firelands Regional Medical Center. I did calm down after he told me that. I wonder how many times he's said that to other patients, in other or in similar situations. I never expected to be there or saw it coming. A twisted path that morning, March 22, from home to work, everything seemed normal, at first, almost back to normal. Just two days earlier, I got the second of two COVID-19 vaccine shots. Then, around 10 a.m., my eyes started to itch. In just a few short minutes, they were puffed up. I washed my eyes out. It grew worse. I need some eyewash, I thought, and some eye drops. I went to my car and drove to the CVS. In the parking lot, my scalp began to itch, overwhelmingly, then my arms, my hands, my underarms and my scalp, more intense each minute after the next. I have to take a shower. I drove west, on Monroe Street. Maybe I should go to the ER, I thought, and almost turned at Columbus Avenue to go there. "No, I just need to take a shower." At home, I whipped off the jacket, the shirt, my trousers and jumped in the shower. The soap bar was just a sliver, I remember, thinking I didn't have the energy to open a new one, and then realizing I was being overwhelmed, breaking out in a redness all over, unable to breathe normally. I stumbled out. I had to get control of my breathing. I sat in a chair and tried to slow it, to will away the incredible itchiness that was all over my body, breath in, breath out, in, out, in, out. I realized then, I don't have my phone. I left it in the newsroom. Everything had happened so quickly. It came on so fast. I stumbled from the chair to the den in my home, to my desk, to my email. My friend Tondra Frisby was downtown, and reporter Andy Ouriel lives downtown. I sent an email to both of them. "I was at work and got sick had to come home. Left my phone there. Could you please bring it to me..." I stumbled back to the living room and sat down, thinking I could calm myself down again. I could will away whatever it was that was happening. I still could not breathe with rhythm. I was gasping for air. It was at that point I knew I needed an ambulance. I crawled back to the computer. I could not even lift myself to the chair, but I was able to send another email to Andy and Tondra. "Send ambulance." I was lying on the floor, then, and remember looking around from that view, thinking how the house was clean, as clean as it's been in forever after a weekend spring cleaning blitz. In my mind, I started writing my own story. "He was found dead in a computer room at his modest home, on the floor. His home was neatly kept." I wasn't ready to die. I had to get back to the living room. Every bit of energy I had left I spent looking at the email from the floor, reaching up, and seeing that a minute after I sent it, at 11:37 a.m., Andy had written back, "OK." He called for an ambulance. And, now, with what I thought was all I had left I made it back to a chair in the living room, where I could watch for the ambulance. And there it was. I opened the patio door, called out to them as best I could. "Help. Help. Here. Here." But they didn't hear me. A moment later, I heard the buzzer at my front door, inside. I stumbled there, hit the button to let them into the condo building. I fell into the hallway as I saw the paramedics approaching with a gurney. In the ambulance, barely conscious, they worked on me. I saw Tondra drive up and minutes later she too was talking to me, trying to calm me down. When the ambulance took off, I remember looking out the back seeing the streets whiz by, trying to determine how close were to the ER. If I can make it to the hospital, I'll survive, I remember thinking. I was dead on the floor, but I remember being mostly content. I started writing the news story, or editing it, in my head. Doing my job has always been the easiest thing I do in life. * ThankfulWith a deep sense of gratitude rarely experienced, I want to express my thanks to the EMS/EMT first responders and all the first responders from the Sandusky Fire Department and Erie County dispatch center who answered the call March 22. You are heroes-at-the-ready every day, on every shift and in life. I want to thank the doctors, nurses and support staff at Firelands Regional Medical Center in the ER, the cath lab and general admission. Your work matters for everyone. Your kindness and professionalism was truly amazing. I also want to thank reporter Andy Ouriel and my friend Tondra Frisby. When I need you, you're always there.