This Sort of Thing Happens to Me a Lot. Wonder Why?

It’s been an adrenaline pumping morning so far. I woke up late, around 9:00 and opened the windows to the house as I usually do. I noticed that the red truck was still at the house across the street which seemed a little odd since I hadn’t seen anyone. I went about my morning routine and noticed a few minutes later that the back window of the truck was open. Hmmmm…that seemed a little odd since I hadn’t seen anyone. I guess my first thought was that someone was breaking in. So I watched a moment or so and noticed a man come out of the house. He was lurching a little and my first thought was “wow, kinda early in the morning to be hitting the sauce”. He appeared to be loading the truck, so I made the assumption that he was preparing to leave and went about my business. Something just didn’t feel right so I made it a point to look every few minutes. As I was looking he seemed to lose his equilibrium. He twisted somewhat and sort of took a few running steps down the sidewalk. I realize now he was trying to get his balance, but that was impossible on the steep sidewalk. As I watched he fell against the rock wall and dropped the things he has been carrying - they were flung all the way down the sidewalk. I waited a moment to see if he would try to get up. He seemed to be dazed and hurt.

I ran into my bedroom and threw on some clothes (I wasn’t going to go out in my nightgown) . I also put my cell phone in my pocket. and started across the street. I said “hey, what’s going on” he managed to say ‘Parkinson’s”. So I knew we had a problem. I looked around for help because I knew I couldn't get him up alone. The man (Dave) who lives on the other corner of the intersection we all live on had seen me run out of my house and came to see what was up. Between the two of us we got Rick (the man’s name) up and sitting on the wall. We were letting him gather his wits and I was accessing the damages. He was scraped up pretty badly and bleeding. I managed to get blood all over me. I ran home to get some paper towels and band-aids to stop the bleeding. We sat and visited while I waited to see how he reacted to things. Dave had to go to work, so he left. Rick and I talked a little while and I asked if he thought he could walk. He thought he probably could so I got him up. He immediately began to wobble and say ‘sit, sit’.

I managed to get him back down and he kind of collapsed. I told him I had my phone and would like to call the Lincoln City police to get someone to check him out. He agreed so I called. A few minutes later 2 big guys in an ambulance showed up with sirens blazing. I told them as much as I knew. Rick seemed to be coherent and they were about to leave. I asked them to check his blood pressure. It was extremely low. He didn’t want to go to the hospital so it seemed we had done all we could. I told the fellows I was just across the street if they needed anything and I left. They were attempting to help him to his car when he collapsed again so they decided to take him to the hospital because something was clearly going on with him besides the obvious issues with the Parkinson’s disease.

I saw him collapse from my window and started back over. I asked him to please allow me to call his brother (I found out during the conversation he was the brother of the owner of the house, Mike). He said “ok” so I called as they loaded him into the ambulance. I let his brother know what was going on and then closed up the house and truck while they took him away.

I came home and put my bloody clothes into the wash and cleaned up. It occurred to me I should have used rubber gloves as I cleaned him up, but what was done was done. I’m still from the old-school first aid glass. Back in the ‘old days’ we didn’t have to be concerned about blood-borne diseases.

Now I’m in the hurry-up-and-wait mode to find out how he is. I’m pretty sure he’s fine, he probably just got dehydrated or forgot to take some meds, but I’d still like to know for sure.

I’ll keep you posted.