A Day In The Life Of....

...personal memories of 9/11 , a day in our history which changed the world .

His challenge is to add our own memories of that day , but , as with many people , my account would be pretty mundane .

I saw the events unfold on a security camera screen in a large department store . The management had decided to use it to transmit the unfolding of the horrifying events to the public and staff who were in the store at the time ...
...immediately brought to my mind a day which changed some people's lives albeit on a much smaller scale , several years ago .

With his permission , I will instead recount those events , because it made me realise that any seemingly ordinary day can turn in a split second into one that both we and others will never forget .


JUNE 2000

It was a beautiful sunny warm Saturday , and my husband and I were ... more

I have just read Richada's review and new challenge about our personal memories of 9/11 , a day in our history which changed the world .

His challenge is to add our own memories of that day , but , as with many people , my account would be pretty mundane .

I saw the events unfold on a security camera screen in a large department store . The management had decided to use it to transmit the unfolding of the horrifying events to the public and staff who were in the store at the time .
The impact was such that we decided to abandon our day of " retail therapy " and returned home to sit , stunned and shocked but transfixed , following the live coverage till well into the early hours of the morning .

I don't feel that my recounting these hours will serve much purpose , but Richard's tale immediately brought to my mind a day which changed some people's lives albeit on a much smaller scale , several years ago .

With his permission , I will instead recount those events , because it made me realise that any seemingly ordinary day can turn in a split second into one that both we and others will never forget .

JUNE 2000

It was a beautiful sunny warm Saturday , and my husband and I were in the kitchen chatting as I prepared lunch . Our house backs onto open land with a couple of little natural lakes , leading eventually to a railway line to the east .
To the south , way across the fields is a small light industrial estate , and at one point , before these houses were built , there was nothing between the original single factory and the small village which has now become a suburb of the city of Lincoln .

The back door was wide open and the birds were singing , and the only other sound was occasional distant hammering as our new neighbours four doors away had someone working in their back garden removing and replacing their old broken fence .
We had noticed the landscape gardener's van parked outside the house earlier and had commented that it was nice to see the new owners beginning to improve the place which had become a little neglected by its previous elderly owner .

I had just opened the glass fronted wall cupboard to take out a couple of coffee mugs when there was a loud , very deep " boom " which rattled the windows in the kitchen and the pots in the cupboard .
After a stunned moment we both literally dropped everything and ran out into the back garden to see if we could find out what had caused the noise

For a split second all was silent , but then we heard a sound that I will never forget …. like an animal screaming , deep , throaty and unearthly .
It sent shivers down my spine .

Glancing across the gardens we could see dense dark smoke rising , and without a word we both instinctively ran through the gate at the side of the house , out onto the road , and vaulted the low wall into the neighbour's front garden .
Unceremoniously we burst through the house and out of the open patio doors into the rear garden , where we saw a young man literally running around the garden , swathed in a column of black smoke , with his shirt and hair on fire .
My husband wrestled him to the ground and removed the burning clothes , using the tea towel which was still in his hands to extinguish the flames coming from the man's head .

For the first time I saw our new neighbour . She emerged from the house where she had instinctively run and hidden . We later discovered that she had been sitting in the garden chatting to the worker when the blast occurred , and had for a reason unknown to her just fled , as had the couple in the garden next door .
Therefore , when we arrived the place was to all intents and purposes deserted , leaving this poor man alone and screaming in agony .

Without taking even a moment to introduce myself or ask any questions I barked out orders , sending her running for a chair and with instructions to phone an ambulance .
As I had been a nurse previously , I suppose I was just working purely on gut instinct and half forgotten training , although I had worked in Cardiac care , never with burns patients specifically .
Instinct was all I had to go on , and I ran with it .

I sat him on the patio chair which the lady had provided , taking care to lean him forward so that his back was clear of the plastic surface , and glanced around .
With huge relief I saw a hose pipe attached to the outside tap . I grabbed it , turned the water full on and begun to run it over his now naked upper body . Dark smoke was still oozing from him , and his skin was hanging off in chunks from his neck to his waist , but I knew that above every other consideration I must cool the area .

Every step of the way I had spoken to him in a calm voice , speaking very quietly so he would have to concentrate fully to make out what I was saying , and gradually his breathing slowed and his attention focussed .

As I played the water as gently as possible over his arms , back and shoulders I asked his name , and for the purpose of this review I will call him Sam ( which is not his real identity ) .
I introduced myself , and explained that I was going to keep the water running and that it would ease the pain which he was obviously suffering .

He was repeating over and over again " I can't see … I cant open my eyes "
He was obviously very worried and distressed , but a quick inspection showed that his eyes , although very dried out , looked reasonably clear and reactive to the light . Thank God for the bright sunshine .
His eyelashes had been reduced to crumbling black stubs , and these particles were dropping into his eyes and not helping the situation at all .
I decided to go with the light hearted approach and not make any promises about his sight that might later prove to be untrue , so I simply said
" You've done a good job of singeing your eyelashes " .
For the first time he grinned , and replied , " I think I've singed a bit more than my bloody eyelashes "
This was to prove typical of Sam's strength of spirit .

I asked if there was anyone we could call for him , but he insisted that he didn't want to worry his family yet , and that anyway he didn't want them seeing him in this state .
" I'd rather wait till I'm at the hospital and someone's cleaned me up a bit …" was his brave and considerate reply .

I then asked him what had happened .

Apparently , he had been about to replace the old fence with new panels , when he had noticed that there was an area where the line of the existing fence ran off at an angle . He had decided to straighten it to improve the look and had dug out a new base for the fence post .
As he dug down he had come across a cable buried in the ground , around five inches from the surface .
At this time , the neighbours on the other side had also been out in their garden , and so had an uninterrupted view of the work going on as it was their boundary fence that had been taken down .
Sam had been chatting to them as he worked , and had remarked on the thick cable he had unearthed , which was obviously electrical , and said that he thought maybe it would be best to leave it undisturbed despite the appearance of the odd line of the fence .

The elderly male neighbour , who had lived in his house from new some forty years earlier , had said that the cable was a long disused feed which used to supply the factory and ran across the open fields to the heart of the old village .
Since the construction of these houses , the cable had been discarded and a new main feed had been created , linking the industrial estate to the main power on an entirely different and much more direct route .
He had assured Sam that he recalled speaking to the Electricity Board at the time about the part of the cable which also crossed his garden , having been concerned that it should have been re-buried much further below the surface , and had been told that it didn't matter as the cable was about to be made redundant .

Sam eventually took his word for it , knelt down on the grass and begun cutting through the cable with a hacksaw .
And that is when the entire neighbourhood discovered that the cable was still very much live and still feeding the industrial estate with a load of 80,000 volts .

After this the neighbour had disappeared into his house and wasn't seen in public again for almost ten days .

Luckily Sam had been wearing a large leather belt on his jeans which had a metal buckle , so when the power surged through his body it ran up his right arm which held the saw and through his torso , but the electricity had discharged into the ground from the metal clasp . It had been this discharge which had caused the boom .
From a positive point of view , although Sam's upper body injuries were horrific , he was unscathed from the line of his belt downwards

The neighbour ( I will call her Sally ) had phoned for an ambulance , but she came out of the house and told me in a whisper that the control room had told her that all of the ambulances in the area were attending a major incident , and the nearest one available to us was currently in Grantham , 27 miles away .
They had called this one out as back up in case none of the local ones could be called away to attend us at any time soon .

I digested this information and glanced at the clock through the kitchen window . 1.20 pm . Only five minutes had passed since we arrived , but seeing the state of Sam's body made me anxious .

Several other people had arrived by now , one of them a man from across the road who was still in his RAF uniform , just having arrived home from work . Thankfully I discovered that he was trained in first aid .
I delegated to him the task of keeping the hose running and moving over the large area of burnt skin while I pulled up another chair so I could sit right in front of Sam , trying to keep him awake and talking .

I knew that should he lapse into unconsciousness due to the shock and the pain that there was a chance that his heart rate would slow and possibly stop due to the huge voltage that had passed through his body .
I didn't have any way of knowing whether it had caused irreparable damage to either his heart or his major organs , and the best I could do was keep him as calm and alert as was humanly possible until help arrived.

Now , as most of you have already discovered , I can talk for England .
I can waffle on for hours about anything and everything , and poor Sam was subjected to a non stop barrage of my inane chat .

Every time his head began to dip down to his chest I would start insistently asking him questions and would not pause to draw breath until he dragged himself back enough to answer .
The one big shock for me was that this person who sat in front of me , chunks of blackened skin constantly dropping from his body as the water trickled over him , was in fact a year younger than my eldest daughter .

Now and again his fear showed in the way he fumbled for my hand … unable to see , he needed some human contact , and although we had only just " met " I was the only thing he had to hang onto .
I admit that the first time , yes , I cringed a little and fought down a touch of nausea as the dried and blackened skin of his knuckles fell away in my hand .
I'm only human .

By now many neighbours had come and gone , stopped by for a look and then left pretty quickly , some of them rather green looking
My husband reappeared with a mug of coffee for me , drew me aside , and told me some of the gossip he had overheard .
Mostly people had been so shocked by both the sight and the overpowering smell ( which I hadn't even registered ) that they had left feeling nauseous . But all had sent me their messages of encouragement along with their apologies that they had been physically unable to stay and offer their help and support .

Glancing round at Sam I suddenly realised what they meant , looking at the scene from a slight distance and taking in for the first time the full horror of the sight , but I had to force myself to remain unaffected by it .
I had a job to do , and no one else here was going to do it for me .

I gulped down the coffee and returned to my seat at Sam's side , plonking my bum firmly back into the huge cold puddle of water that had formed on the seat .

" Sam " I said quietly
" Yes " he answered
" Would it be completely unreasonable of me to say I'm gagging for a cigarette right now ? "
Sam chuckled and replied " You spark the fags up and I'll fetch the pints "

We incurred some rather odd looks as we sat in a fit of giggles surrounded by a virtual pond of water which used to be Sally's patio , but which was by now floating with a layer of Sam's rapidly disintegrating skin .
Sam couldn't see it which was in a way a Godsend , and I remained , outwardly at least , unaffected .
We had , after all , discovered a shared sense of the ridiculous .

By now almost fifteen minutes had passed , and there was still no sign of the ambulance .
Despite the warm sun Sam was starting to shiver uncontrollably with a combination of shock and the long exposure to the cold water .
Suddenly the man in charge of the hose pipe decided it might be best to turn it off and for someone to fetch Sam a blanket and a hot cup of tea instead .

It never fails to surprise me how , once someone comes up with an opinion most of the other people present will echo it .

I was outnumbered five to one in my insistence that the water be kept running and that he should not be given anything at all to drink .
A blanket of any kind would simply stick to the burns and could easily cause an infection to develop , plus it's eventual removal would result in even more skin being stripped away .
The man with the hose pipe started to get quite loud in voicing the fact that " he was fully trained in first aid " , and to be honest I think he also resented a little the fact that a woman was apparently ( although not democratically elected to be ) in charge .

I wasn't about to stand in front of Sam and argue with these people … I didn't want him to even suspect that there was any question that I knew exactly what I was doing , as he had now become very calm and seemed to trust me completely .
To my mind panicking him equalled raised heart rate which in turn equalled no good for Sam , so despite my own slight misgivings in the face of such opposition I simply said " Anyone who doesn't agree is free to leave . I accept full responsibility . "

Amazingly everyone fell silent and resumed what they were doing .
I told Sally to phone the ambulance again and find out what was going on
and quite abruptly instructed someone to carefully sweep some of the water and debris away from the patio onto the lawn .
I felt that a little authority wouldn't go amiss , and although it's not the way I would normally deal with people I forced myself to come across quite forcefully and with a show of supreme and unshakeable confidence which was actually far removed from how I was really feeling .
As I had hoped , all resistance faded away and everyone begun to re-focus on the task in hand .

As I had now spent almost twenty minutes sitting close beside Sam , chatting quietly and keeping him calm and awake I was equally as soaking wet as he was .
My clothes were clinging to me , my T shirt and denim shorts were drenched and my wet hair was sticking to my face .
Without really thinking I remarked to Sam " You're probably lucky you can't see at the moment . I look like absolute shite . "

He chuckled instantly despite a renewed intense bout of shivering , and I glanced anxiously at the clock . No one would look me in the eye , and all were obviously really worried by now that despite our prolonged and determined efforts Sam was becoming visibly weaker .

I knew that beneath the layer of water that was constantly trickling onto his skin his raw body was oozing precious essential fluids , and every minute that passed was literally draining his life away .
Also , here in the open air the chances of an infection beginning was enormous , and I struggled with my conscience , now questioning my own reasoning .

The only thought that I could comfort myself with was that I was doing the best I knew how in a hellish situation , ( advice I recently gave quite lightly in another review ) , and of all the people here I was the only one willing to make that call .
Sam's life depended on us , and right or wrong I had to stick with my gut instinct .

Then to my huge relief I heard sirens . Lots of sirens .

After almost half an hour two ambulances had arrived at exactly the same time , one from the Lincoln station having just managed to get away from the incident they had been dealing with , and also the back up vehicle which had been racing against time and traffic between here and Grantham .
There were also two Police cars , one of which had escorted the Grantham ambulance .
Suddenly the garden was filled with uniformed crews to whom I was by now only too glad to relinquish control .

I stepped back and sat on the wet grass , suddenly exhausted , as they quickly assessed Sam's injuries , carefully loaded him onto a stretcher and rushed him to the ambulance .
From a distance I heard him shouting in sheer and obvious panic
" Where's my voice ? " over and over .

I didn't understand at the time , as my mind seemed to have receded somewhere away from the scene , but one of the ambulance crew came and said to me " Is it you who has been talking to him all the time ? " .
I said yes , and he explained that as Sam hadn't been able to see he had latched onto my voice , and was becoming very distressed now that he couldn't hear me.
I was asked if it would be possible for me to go with him in the ambulance to keep him calm and reassure him , and with a slight hesitation I looked down at my bare feet .
I hadn't even had time to put any shoes on !

My husband dashed back to the house and reappeared with ……. a pair of black knee high boots !
In his hurry he had grabbed the first pair he had come across in the cupboard , and I ended up leaving in the ambulance wearing a now filthy white T shirt , cut off denim jeans shorts and knee high black boots .
Sam chuckled when I told him , despite the fact that gel dressings were being applied to his body and needles inserted into his arms , and he demanded that someone take a photograph to keep for when his eyes were better .

Luckily cameras are not part of standard ambulance equipment .

When we arrived at the hospital the sterile room was ready and waiting for Sam , and a huge number of staff descended on us .
As Sam was wheeled through the double doors a nurse told me I couldn't go in due to risk of contamination , which struck me as hilariously ridiculous considering the facts , and she asked me to go with her to reception and book Sam in .
All I could do was to shout goodbye and good luck to him as he disappeared , protesting loudly at being separated from me .

As requested I went to reception with the nurse , but when they asked me for his name , address , doctor's name and family contact number , all I could say was " I don't know "
They looked at me very strangely , obviously wondering why he had been brought in with someone who clearly hadn't a clue who he was or where he lived .

Finally I excused myself and went to phone my husband .
He collected me from the hospital fifteen minutes later .

I was a pretty bedraggled sight , standing out in front of the hospital in my odd outfit , soaking wet and filthy .
I climbed into the car and saw his nose wrinkle . " Christ babe , you really need a shower " he commented .

All the way home I was silent . Not deliberately , but after something like that , when my mind had been working non stop at warp speed for what seemed like an eternity , I just shut down .
Although concerned , he left me to my blank state , and as soon as I walked into the door of my home I went straight up the stairs , stripped and stepped into the warm shower .
On the floor beside me my discarded boots were lying on their side , and a trail of skin and water was floating out onto the tiled floor .

That's when I broke down .
I sat on the floor of the shower , clasped my hands round my knees , put my head in my lap and cried like a baby .

11pm that evening .

I was sitting staring at the TV when the phone rang .
It was the ambulance man who had taken us to the hospital . He had just come off shift , and wanted to tell me that what I had done had been exactly right and that I had more than likely saved Sam's life .
He hadn't had time to speak to me on the journey , and didn't realise when he came away from the hand over at the hospital that I had already left , so he had obtained my number from the Police who had attended and decided to give me a call .

He had also taken it on himself to explain to the staff why I had been there and why I knew so little about Sam when I was asked to book him in , and they had asked for him to pass on their apologies .
It wasn't their fault .. they didn't know the circumstances and in their position I would probably have been a little abrupt and dismissive too , but nevertheless they apologised for not having made the effort to find out the facts .

The next morning a huge bouquet was delivered .
There was a little card , handwritten , which said simply " Thank you for my son's life " .
It was from Sam's mother .

She phoned me regularly as Sam had been transferred in the wee small hours of the morning to the specialist Burns Unit in Nottingham , and for the next two months she and Sam's sister kept me updated on his progress

His sight had returned after three days , although it was several months before the scarring on his eyes healed enough to give him back almost perfect vision .

He underwent extensive skin grafts , some of which tightened and had to be subsequently " released " to allow some range of movement in his joints , and his path to recovery was both long and painful .

I remained in contact with his extensive family for a year and a half , then one day , out of the blue , we received an invitation to his wedding .

The joy of seeing Sam married , still heavily bandaged and wearing gloves to protect his hands , was indescribable .

He and his lovely wife now have two healthy , beautiful children .

Sam was unable to return to his business of landscape gardening due to the ongoing risk of infection to his hands , but eventually , after much initial help from his two brothers , he set up as a manager in his own enterprise .

He now designs gardens and employs someone else do the manual labour .

He and his family are happy and thriving .

Although this is in no way as significant an event as 9/11 , it is a tribute to strength of character and the human spirit .

No matter what the scale , both are tales of survival and sheer determination in the face of pain , both physical and mental .

To Sam .

Jane xx

 

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