A Whole Lot Of 'Fahting'.
I have never worked as a cop, fireman or a paramedic. I have never worked in a hospital or at a funeral home. Yet, I have seen many dead people over the course of my life.
Too many in fact.
They were all people who took their last breath either right in front of me or in my immediate vicinity. I was just ten years old when I witnessed a person die for the very first time. It all started one evening with me having incredible pains in my stomach and the pain was so severe that I could only lie down. I could not sit or stand up without screaming in agony.
My mother was extremely worried since I had never experienced anything like it before during the first decade of my life. She was going to call me an ambulance, but instead one of her friends from the Kingdom Hall drove us to the hospital. Since she also lived in the Jungle my brother was able go over and play with her boys while her husband watched all the kids.
Northwestern General Hospital was the closest hospital to where we lived in Lawrence Heights. It was located on Keele Street and was about a fifteen minute drive from our apartment. I remember lying in the fetal position all the way there on the back seat of the big green Ford Fairlane. I thought I was literally going to die, I was in so much pain when we arrived at the Emergency ward. I guess because I was a little kid in severe pain the doctor saw me right away and I immediately was taken for a stomach X-ray.
I remember the doctor being a short Chinese man with thick black rimmed glasses and he talked funny. He told my mother that I might have an ulcer. After my X-ray I was wheeled back into the Emergency area where my mother and I waited for the doctor to let us know the results. I was still in pain as I slowly sipped some type of bubbly medication a nurse had given me.
I could never recall ever being in an Emergency room of a hospital before. There was so much to look at while I sat on the bed and everyone seemed so busy. About a half hour later the doctor arrived with a clipboard in his hand. The news was good and I did not have an ulcer, but I did have a lot of gas. The doctor told me that I would need to get rid of the gas and the pain would go away. He said I needed to do a whole lot of farting or as he called it 'fahting' before I could go home.
The doctor had me lay on the bed with my knees up after giving me a pill for the gas. He said he would be back in a half hour and if the pain was gone, I would be able to go home. My mother went back out into the waiting room to let her friend know we were going to be a bit longer. Within a couple minutes everything got pretty crazy inside the room.
A couple of paramedics were now wheeling a guy into the room where I was laying. There was a doctor pounding on the guy’s chest and a couple nurses were following the fast moving stretcher. I also saw a couple cops who arrived at the same time. Everything happened so fast and before I knew it the stretcher was wheeled right over beside me. One of the nurses pulled the privacy curtain across, but she pulled it too far. There was now a large crack between the two curtains and I could clearly see everything that was going on right beside me.
There would be no privacy.
They were all people who took their last breath either right in front of me or in my immediate vicinity. I was just ten years old when I witnessed a person die for the very first time. It all started one evening with me having incredible pains in my stomach and the pain was so severe that I could only lie down. I could not sit or stand up without screaming in agony.
My mother was extremely worried since I had never experienced anything like it before during the first decade of my life. She was going to call me an ambulance, but instead one of her friends from the Kingdom Hall drove us to the hospital. Since she also lived in the Jungle my brother was able go over and play with her boys while her husband watched all the kids.
Northwestern General Hospital was the closest hospital to where we lived in Lawrence Heights. It was located on Keele Street and was about a fifteen minute drive from our apartment. I remember lying in the fetal position all the way there on the back seat of the big green Ford Fairlane. I thought I was literally going to die, I was in so much pain when we arrived at the Emergency ward. I guess because I was a little kid in severe pain the doctor saw me right away and I immediately was taken for a stomach X-ray.
I remember the doctor being a short Chinese man with thick black rimmed glasses and he talked funny. He told my mother that I might have an ulcer. After my X-ray I was wheeled back into the Emergency area where my mother and I waited for the doctor to let us know the results. I was still in pain as I slowly sipped some type of bubbly medication a nurse had given me.
I could never recall ever being in an Emergency room of a hospital before. There was so much to look at while I sat on the bed and everyone seemed so busy. About a half hour later the doctor arrived with a clipboard in his hand. The news was good and I did not have an ulcer, but I did have a lot of gas. The doctor told me that I would need to get rid of the gas and the pain would go away. He said I needed to do a whole lot of farting or as he called it 'fahting' before I could go home.
The doctor had me lay on the bed with my knees up after giving me a pill for the gas. He said he would be back in a half hour and if the pain was gone, I would be able to go home. My mother went back out into the waiting room to let her friend know we were going to be a bit longer. Within a couple minutes everything got pretty crazy inside the room.
A couple of paramedics were now wheeling a guy into the room where I was laying. There was a doctor pounding on the guy’s chest and a couple nurses were following the fast moving stretcher. I also saw a couple cops who arrived at the same time. Everything happened so fast and before I knew it the stretcher was wheeled right over beside me. One of the nurses pulled the privacy curtain across, but she pulled it too far. There was now a large crack between the two curtains and I could clearly see everything that was going on right beside me.
There would be no privacy.
I was now starting to loudly rip my farts and I could not stop them. They were constant one right after another and I just could not hold them in. Because there was so much commotion right beside me my mother was not allowed back into the area. What I was watching was like something you would have seen on a television show, but this was real life and it was happening less than five feet away right beside me.
Whatever was going on with this poor guy was pretty serious. Another doctor arrived and both of the doctors began working feverishly on him. I could see through the crack in the curtains that the guy’s eyes were closed and within minutes everything stopped and everything went quiet. Well at least on that side of the curtain it was quiet, on my side my farts were so loud and there was no doubt everyone in the room could hear them. You couldn’t help but hear them and I was so embarrassed. Whatever they gave me for my gas was working on me big time.
I could see one of the doctors talking to the cops. I looked over through the crack in the curtain and saw a nurse pull a light blue sheet over the guy’s head. She was also now disconnecting stuff.
I knew that wasn’t good.
A couple minutes passed, an older couple was brought into the room by the cops. They looked Italian and the woman was screaming as her husband was trying to comfort her. He was also crying and they were not speaking English. I could see through the crack that she was kissing the guy’s forehead and making crosses with her hand. She was so distraught, I felt so sorry for her. I was pretty certain that it was her son who had just died right beside me. He looked young like he was in his mid-twenties and he had curly long black hair.
Her crying was very loud and I could no longer even hear my own farts. After a few minutes the older couple was escorted back out of the room by the cops. The doctors and the nurses also left the room as I looked through the crack once again. I just wanted the dead guy to look over at me, smile and tell me I was on Candid Camera.
He didn’t.
It seemed like minutes, but in reality me and the dead guy were alone in that room for probably less than a minute. A nurse came back in; she covered his face again with the sheet. She then wheeled the dead guy out through another door at the back of the room. My stomach pain was now gone and my farts had finally stopped. My mother arrived back in the room and asked me what had happened. She had seen all the commotion from out in the waiting room and I told her what I had seen. I told her that a guy had just died right beside me on the other side of the curtain.
“Maybe, he was already dead when he arrived,” my mother said.
"I don’t know," I replied
"I know for sure he was dead when he left the room," I added.
The doctor arrived back to check on me. I asked him what had happened to the dead guy that the nurse had just wheeled out. The doctor said that he had died from a heroin overdose. The doctor told me I could now go home and that I might want to consider chewing my food better and eating slower in the future. He said that my stomach pain was most likely from eating too fast and not chewing my food properly.
The whole ordeal that night was unforgettable and within a couple hours I was back at home. All I could think about for the next few days was the poor guy I had seen die right beside me. I felt so sorry for his parents and I could not imagine ever doing drugs after what I had seen.
I was just ten years old and that night at the hospital would become forever etched into my memory. I don’t know how anyone could ever forget seeing a dead body for the first time.
Sadly, for me it would end up becoming the first of many.
Whatever was going on with this poor guy was pretty serious. Another doctor arrived and both of the doctors began working feverishly on him. I could see through the crack in the curtains that the guy’s eyes were closed and within minutes everything stopped and everything went quiet. Well at least on that side of the curtain it was quiet, on my side my farts were so loud and there was no doubt everyone in the room could hear them. You couldn’t help but hear them and I was so embarrassed. Whatever they gave me for my gas was working on me big time.
I could see one of the doctors talking to the cops. I looked over through the crack in the curtain and saw a nurse pull a light blue sheet over the guy’s head. She was also now disconnecting stuff.
I knew that wasn’t good.
A couple minutes passed, an older couple was brought into the room by the cops. They looked Italian and the woman was screaming as her husband was trying to comfort her. He was also crying and they were not speaking English. I could see through the crack that she was kissing the guy’s forehead and making crosses with her hand. She was so distraught, I felt so sorry for her. I was pretty certain that it was her son who had just died right beside me. He looked young like he was in his mid-twenties and he had curly long black hair.
Her crying was very loud and I could no longer even hear my own farts. After a few minutes the older couple was escorted back out of the room by the cops. The doctors and the nurses also left the room as I looked through the crack once again. I just wanted the dead guy to look over at me, smile and tell me I was on Candid Camera.
He didn’t.
It seemed like minutes, but in reality me and the dead guy were alone in that room for probably less than a minute. A nurse came back in; she covered his face again with the sheet. She then wheeled the dead guy out through another door at the back of the room. My stomach pain was now gone and my farts had finally stopped. My mother arrived back in the room and asked me what had happened. She had seen all the commotion from out in the waiting room and I told her what I had seen. I told her that a guy had just died right beside me on the other side of the curtain.
“Maybe, he was already dead when he arrived,” my mother said.
"I don’t know," I replied
"I know for sure he was dead when he left the room," I added.
The doctor arrived back to check on me. I asked him what had happened to the dead guy that the nurse had just wheeled out. The doctor said that he had died from a heroin overdose. The doctor told me I could now go home and that I might want to consider chewing my food better and eating slower in the future. He said that my stomach pain was most likely from eating too fast and not chewing my food properly.
The whole ordeal that night was unforgettable and within a couple hours I was back at home. All I could think about for the next few days was the poor guy I had seen die right beside me. I felt so sorry for his parents and I could not imagine ever doing drugs after what I had seen.
I was just ten years old and that night at the hospital would become forever etched into my memory. I don’t know how anyone could ever forget seeing a dead body for the first time.
Sadly, for me it would end up becoming the first of many.
