I've finished another book for the Take a Chance Challenge This one was --
2. Random Word. Go to this random word generator and generate a random word. Find a book with this word in the title. Read the book and write about it.
My random word was "seat" and I found a great book called, "Answering 911 Life in the Hot Seat" by Caroline Burau. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Burau writes about life as a 911 operator the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her writing style reminded me so much of Ann Marie--her sense of humor and her take on things. I love Ann Marie's writing so of course I loved this book. One of the things I enjoyed was how she so frankly talked about her feelings when it came to certain calls. How she would be on the edge of her seat as the drama played out and then the police would arrive and she'd be cut off never knowing how it ended. It made me think about the woman that I talked to the day Joe choked when he was about 7 months old. I was completely hysterical, trying to save my baby and listen to her at the same time. I was screaming and at one point yelling at her. She was telling me to lay him down and take his clothes off. He was blue, passed out, totally limp and I could feel the pluot (a fruit that is a mix between a plum and apricot) pit at the opening of his throat. I was slowly and carefully trying to get my fingernail around it and get it out. I was NOT going to take the time to lay him down and take his clothes off and I screamed at her, "NO!!" and then I think I just dropped the phone. It's all a big blur to me. I did get the pit out after probably 3 or 4 minutes and then he didn't start breathing. I had to lay him down and give him mouth to mouth resuscitation and then he started breathing and crying. That's about the time the EMTs walked in and the first thing they said was, "a crying baby--that's good." They sounded as relieved as I was. I can't remember what I did with the phone but I probably picked it up, said, "they're here" and hung it up. That poor woman--to have to listen to my screams of desperation--it must have been awful. Soon after it happened I thought about seeing if I could get a copy of my 911 call--I was most curious to see how long it lasted. But, I never did. I didn't want to relive those few minutes. I thought about that a lot as I read this book.
I highly recommend this book, it was a fun and fast read, something I never would have come across if it hadn't been for this challenge. This makes up for the one book that I didn't like at all.
3 comments:
Even though I know the story about Joe and 911 and I've heard it many times, I was still shaking reading this. I want to read that book.
scary scary situation! my sister is a 911 operator and some of her stories... scary, funny, and sad.
I once had a little boy about 2 or 3 tossed in my arms by a hysterical mother. He was already blue and completely limp. While my mom called 911 and with this mother yelling at me to do something, (she was a neighbor of my mom's and had been trying herself) I got the hot dog to pop out and got the little guy breathing somehow. Rescue arrived and was checking him out so I went outside got sick. I remember looking up at the brightest night sky KNOWING I had absolutely nothing to do with that little boy living.
Cheryl--I felt the same way after it was over. I got the pit out but it had nothing to do with me. About a week after it happened I had a sort of "vision" of the moment that I gave Joe mouth to mouth resuscitation and I pictured Jesus on his knees next to me--there for me no matter what the outcome.
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