July 22, 2008
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
12:31 PM
It was around 9:00am when I got a call from my employer Larry Dodson, of Desert Valley Installations to go to the address he gave me in Cathedral City at Cathedral Canyon Country Club Condo's. Because Larry said it was a demo, I decided not to grab breakfast because I'd be done early enough for lunch afterward. He said he would meet me there with the drawings and details of the job along with the clients name and phone numbers. I got there at around 9:30am and a second employee of Larry's arrived, Orlando. He was told by Larry to give me a hand on the demolition of the cabinetry and counter tops of the kitchen and both bathrooms of the condo. Then I could start the next day by myself with the install of all bathroom and kitchen cabinets. I put on my work gloves and got stared. Since I was typically a cabinet installer and didn't do that many demo's, I noticed that in both the master and the guest bath that there were mirrors that needed to be removed before the counters or cabinets could be removed. I called Larry and asked him what he wanted Orlando and I to do about the mirrors. Larry asked how secured they seemed to be and I told him that they were pretty loose actually. and the only sure thing holding the mirrors in place were clips at the tops of the mirrors and then they were resting in a metal track that rested on the top of the back splash of the counter tops. Then the metal track was screwed to the walls. Since they didn't appear to be too secured to the walls with Mastic, Larry told Orlando and I to go ahead and remove the mirrors ourselves and then keep going with the rest, counter tops, cabinets, appliances, fixtures, etc. I asked Orlando to start working on the kitchen counters and cabinets and I would start removing the mirrors. I told him to give me a yell if he needed a hand and I would do the same. I got a couple of mirrors down and then I needed Orlando to help remove a couple because of their size. While we were working on one of the master bath mirrors, all we had to remove it were pry bars and hammers. I remember one of the mirrors had a big piece of the corner snapped off. I had other mirrors leaning against one wall in the master bedroom and when Orlando came to help me with the bigger ones, we leaned those against the same wall. Once all of the mirrors were down, Orlando helped me carry down the larger mirrors and then I took the rest of the smaller mirrors downstairs to the utility trailer. I had already carried down 3 or 4 mirrors alone and one of the last of them, about 3 feet square, with the top left corner broken away, went so smoothly going through the condo, out onto the 2nd floor landing, down 2 flights of "L" shaped stairs, passed some overgrown shrubbery, and an uneven sidewalk to get to the trailer. When I would get to the trailer I reached up to "walk" the mirror down low enough so it wouldn't hit the top of the trailer as I carried it in and leaned it against the side with the others. On this last one, I took my left hand to reach up and walk the mirror down. Well that was the mirror that was broken in the top left corner, so when I reached up, there was nothing there. I looked up when I felt nothing there and saw the razor sharp edge slide into my forearm. As it was cutting me I immediately let go with my right hand to let the mirror fall to the ground. This was at approximately 12:30-12:45pm and the mirror went down to the bone in my forearm. As soon as my right hand was free, I slapped it over the cut in my arm and yelled up to the condo "call 911, call 911". Orlando came out onto the stairs with his phone in his hand and the emergency operator on the line. Orlando wasn't sure of the address so I gave it to him to repeat to the operator. Then Orlando came over to me asking what happened and then another guy, possibly a landscaper for the condos came over to try and help. Then some other guy in what I think was a A/C service van pulled up. I kept tell the three guys to tie my arm off, with anything, tie my arm off. The guy from the van took a produce bag out of the van and tried to stretch it to make it longer but it kept breaking. So I just kept my right hand over it, bleeding.I had moved to 2 different spots while standing up and after about 5 or 10 minutes, the guys helped me get to some shade and laid me down on my back. They raised my legs to help keep me from going into shock, I almost felt as though they were hanging me up to bleed me out like a deer because it seemed like I started to bleed even more. What seemed to be already another 10-15 minutes, a fire truck and an ambulance pulled into the parking lot, but it looked like the kept going on past. After seeing them go past, it took another couple of minutes for the medics to get to me. Even then, when I looked for them over to my right I finally saw a medic approaching. On one hand I was relieved, but when I saw this guy, he was just strolling, not in any kind of a hurry, none of them were. I was getting pissed, I was thinking "you guys are suppose to save lives and your walking at a leisurely pace". This guys gets to me and tells me to remove my right hand from my left forearm. I told him he needed to get some gauze, towels, something because I was bleeding really bad. He told me to move my hand because it wasn't that bad. How the hell did he know, I've been bleeding from a main artery for nearly 25 minute's. Rather than argue, I pulled my right hand away. Then this "medic" yelled to the other medics to get him some towels and gauze. I even heard someone say "we've got a pumper", but then I was wrong about the medic not being ready to handle the amount of blood I was losing. I think there is a period of time and some things that went on that I don't recall. Then I get put on a gurney and loaded into the ambulance. One of the medics and a firm hold on my forearm with some gauze over the cut and another medic was trying to get a second IV into my right leg. I noticed that there was one in my right arm already so I asked the medic holding my arm what was going on and he told me that I was losing a lot of blood and they wanted to get more fluids in me. The problem was that this other medic at my feet couldn't hit a vein because they were collapsing. So he was told to stop and to do other things. I just laid there getting tired, more and more tired. After what seemed to be about 15-20 minutes we arrived at Desert Regional Hospital. When I was rolled into the ER, I was met by a male ER nurse, a female reception nurse and a doctor that said he was a neuro surgeon (names I don't recall). These people took my personal property, my cell phone and I gave the reception nurse my daughters phone number and her speed dial number from my phone. During this someone took my blood pressure, temperature, asked me how I got hurt, I explained what happened. They asked me how I was feeling, I told them I felt fine, except that I was getting tired, and wanted to just close my eyes and go to sleep. This doctor in the white coat was working on my arm and moving around the room while all this other stuff was going on and I heard him ask someone where a certain type of clamp was. I heard him ask again and not get a response from anyone. When I heard the doctor raise his voice in panic to whoever heard him for where this clamp was, then I started to get concerned, otherwise I was being quite patient and calm during the whole thing, until then. My arm got wrapped up, I received 2 blood transfusions and got my blood pressure stable and was feeling better. But still tired. The doctor got the clamp he was looking for I guess and did what was needed with it. At some point I had to sign a paper for them to give me blood. Then I was able to use my cell phone and make a few calls to get my son and daughter down there. After they got there and my best friend Dave, I asked the male nurse if I could get something to eat, he told me that I couldn't have anything in case they were to operate. Okay, I'll buy that, but what about some ice chips? Nope, no water, no ice chips, nothing. The only reason I was given was because they may operate on me as soon as I got to another hospital and they didn't want ANYTHING in my stomach. I'm still pretty much out of it as far as comprehension. I heard someone telling me and my kids that they were going to have to transport me to another hospital that can do the surgery on my arm. From what I was told is that they called 3 or 4 hospitals and nobody had either a bed or a doctor that could do the surgery. But they said that they were sending me to County General in Los Angeles. What I couldn't understand is, why were they sending me to a county hospital when my employers insurance company is one of the largest in the world. It didn't make sense. So later that day, around 10:00pm, I was loaded into another ambulance with 3 medics to make my trip to LA. And still I have had no food, no water, no ice. Nothing since before the accident. -
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