One Night, after a Training Meeting, Update

I have an update to my recent post about my time in the Emergency Room and the gash in the back of my head.

I am very glad to report that my physician removed the five staples from the two-inch gash in my head, talked to me, and examined me. She found me very boring, medically speaking. This means there is no reason to believe a medical condition contributed to my losing consciousness.

She also told me that getting concussed ( which clearly happened ) can result in some lapse of memory both preceding and following the event. So it is possible that falling is the first event that occurred. ( During the exam, my wife reminded me, "You're not the most graceful man I know." )

Both because it's medically reasonable and too scary to believe the other, I believe this sequence: I fell, gashed my head, lost consciousness, finished going downstairs, wanted to drive home.

I attended the next training session, in the same facility, and learned more:

1. At the beginning of the session, the facilitator asked, "Any questions about anything?"
   
   "Does anyone know what happened to Walter?" asked a woman at the next table.
   
   "I'm right here," I responded. I thanked her for asking and gave a Reader's Digest version of the story. "Did any of you see anything?" I asked as I finished. Not a hand went up.
   
   Take away: not a single person involved in the training witnessed the event.
   
   
2. Paula, the staff person who called my wife, sat at my table at the subsequent meeting and insisted I take the elevator with her when the meeting was over. I did.
   
   She told me the trail of blood began on the first landing I came to when descending the steps.
   
   Take aways:
   • I traversed four flights of steps after sustaining the wound.
   • This distance shocks me.
     
3. Paula introduced me to the Security Guard who had kept me from driving; I knew her, but I did not realize she was the one. "Just doin' my job," she said when I thanked her. She also said I kept insisting, "I'm fine, I'm fine," when she first intercepted me.
   
   Take aways:
   • The guards just do their jobs, calmly and confidently.
   • They can make a serious difference in people's lives.
     
     
4. As we spoke, a group of fellow students came down. She was telling me that I had been in shock, and the students agreed. "You were shaking." Several of them asked if I had been adequately tested for a medical condition contributing to my fall. I assured them that I had been.
   
   Take aways:
   
   • I was in shock.
   • The students truly cared and were concerned. ( This does not surprise. It is a living example of the radical hospitality notion I mentioned in the first post. )

My bottom line is, if I were going to pick a place to have an accident, I could not have picked a better, more caring one.

If you would like to comment but don't care to use the comment field, send an email to  walter.comments@inkfounta.in.