From the Washington Post a doctor (Dwaine Rieves is a medical imaging physician in D. C. learns about falling: “I do not remember the act of falling, but I do recall picking myself up from the sidewalk and pulling a Kleenex from my pocket to dab at my injured forehead. Amazing, I thought, my blood so vividly red. Such great oxygenation. The sensation was wonder, and I knew this feeling was bizarre, for I obviously had taken a hard fall. I would later remember staggering to my front door, where my mind went blank”.
She goes on to write:
“I awaken on a stretcher in an ambulance. I work to put the situation together. I was walking home from the post office, rushing because I had an appointment. I was making good time until I encountered two elderly men walking ahead of me. I felt fully charged, and the slowpokes were blocking my way. I recall thinking I was lucky to have such a flourishing body for a physician approaching his 70th birthday. As I sprinted around the old guys, I stumbled and fell. I passed out, and yet somehow, I got home. This is a mystery. So I ask the EMT at my side, “Who called you?”
“You did.”
I am certain that I lost consciousness, so, no way could I have called an ambulance. But the tech is struggling to apply a blood-pressure cuff, obviously too busy for more questions. He’s probably signaling for me to stay quiet, to cooperate because I might be dying. Dying makes sense because I might be bleeding inside my skull. The odd thing is that I feel fine, which makes no sense at all. The disconnect between what I know and what I feel suggests a serious brain injury, and as I try to envision the specific location of brain damage, my awareness once more disappears.
When I regain consciousness, I am stretched out on a hospital bed. A man is appraising my facial wounds. He introduces himself and tells me I am in the emergency room. Dr. Case is youthful in the prime-of-profession way that I once was, energetic and confident. I’m not going to tell him I’m a doctor; I can imagine the pressure he’s already under, the rush. He spreads a blanket over me, and only then do I realize I must have been shivering. My thoughts have clearly overtaken my sensations.
