One of the regular customers is a 76 year old man named Jim. He comes in with his neighbors - they keep an eye on him and bring him with them to the restaurant about once a week. I love this old guy, he flirts with me like only old men can and always tells me how "terrible" everything is with a sparkle in his eye.
Well tonight they were brave enough to venture out in the single digit weather for dinner. But Jim lost his balance trying to come up on the curb and he fell over backwards knocking his head quite hard on the pavement. He had the wind knocked out of him and wasn't really moving - the pizza guy and I both ran out to see what we could do (his neighbors are elderly too so we didn't want them trying to get him up).
Despite knowing that moving someone can be dangerous we decided that leaving a frail elderly man laying on cold pavement in minus wind chill weather would be much worse. So we got on each side of him and hoisted him up between us. We had quite a struggle to get him up the steps and into the restaurant. I had to lift his knees for him to get his feet up and then we had to hoist him up the step. Despite being old and somewhat frail he's not small - he's about 6'2" and probably around 180-190. He was not talking, not answering questions and not able to try pick his feet.
Once we got him seated inside the front door the owners sister showed up and since she is a nurse and rarely shows up it was perfect timing indeed. She took over while I called 911 and got some ice in a bag and applied it to the rapidly growing goose egg on the back of his head.
He kept getting confused, he was talking but he didn't seem to understand why he couldn't just go eat. We told him he fell and hit his head and needed to be checked out and he'd say "I did?" and then he'd be quiet for awhile and a few minutes later he'd ask again - "why can't we go eat?" and we'd tell him again.
He as taken to a local hospital and they didn't think he had a concussion they sent him home. I hope he's okay as he lives alone.
I hope to see him back at the restaurant as usual soon.
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3 comments:
He'll probably be fine. My genius ex-husband overdid it with the magic mushrooms last New Year's, passed out and fell straight back. His head literally bounced off of the hardwood floors.
Good thing that Bill was there, he's a trama ER nurse. David almost seized up, they brought him around and he threw up all over the place.
For the next six or so hours, he was just like your customer- asking why we couldn't just go home, or why we couldn't just go to sleep, not remembering that he hit his head, not remembering anything. He could barely tell us his birthday, and he struggled to tell us my birthday and our wedding anniversary.
The next day he was still a little fuzzy, but after that he was just fine.
Super scary, though.
I think your "honey" is okay, especially if he wasn't throwing up..
<3
I cannot believe they sent him home especially since he lives alone.
Awwwww.... poor old gaff.
I hope that he is okay Tricia.
At least you were there to help him out.
((Hugs))
Laura
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