An update on Ron

Jay, Stewart, Louis and myself had the privilege of eating lunch with Ron today. He got permission to put on street clothes remove his telemetry unit and go to the cafeteria for a bit. Honestly it was a strange feeling to be with him at first. I told him that he needed to get use to people staring at him, he laughed. We talked about a lot of things, as well as went over the events of "the day". Seems he doesn't remember anything about the day, only the day before. After the initial awkwardness of the moment we learn very quickly that his sense of humor is in tack and more wicked that ever.

Ron spoke about his eventual return to work:
Stewart said “No hurry. You’ve made it quite clear you don’t want to work radio.”
Ron replied “Oh no, I’m dying to!”

It went down hill from there, he started cracking one liners about his "near" death. When I asked him what I could Blog he gave permission to share some of our laughter, for example:

When a nurse saw Ron in the BMC cafeteria and went on and on with surprise to see him and how good he looked:
Stewart: “Ma’am, who are you talking to??” And Ron then gave his best ghost impression.
Added Louis: “Ma’am, you’re the only one who can actually see him.”

When nurses, seeing the rest of us in EMS uniform, asked Ron what he does:
“I’m a paramedic too,” he said.
Greg: “He’s been a medic a lo-o-ong time.”
Stewart: “Yeah! He was even a medic in his former life!”

After questions of whether he remembered anything from the experience (lights, long lost relatives, hovering above us watching us work, etc.,
Stewart: “To the dismay of so many who have hoped against hope, can you confirm that Elvis truly did die in 1977 ?”
Ron: “That I can! He did die in ’77 and he looks the same as he did then!”

Ron, on the suggestion of sharing his experience:
Ron: “What do I say? Hello-o-o-o! I couldn't’t remember anything for days, and they say I was dead, but hey! Here I am! Hi! I’m back!”

There were tons more that I have forgotten, he mentioned maybe a "Ron was dead" contest to see who could come up with the best one liner, and offer a dinner for the winner that he would chose. I don't know about that one, maybe that is a bit far...

As you can see it was very dark and sick humor, (that he initiated) but we laughed and enjoyed each others company and forgot the utter fear, panic, loss and sorrow that we had felt just a short week earlier. Frankly I wonder what all this means. Everything fell into place perfectly that day, and the more we look at it the stranger it gets, consider for example..

When we got back to the nurses desk, Ron asked the nurse for his chart to show us the code summary from the MEMS LP 12. We looked at the fib, shock etc... when one of us noticed. The time recorded on the strip of V-Fib was "9:54" Of course that is the old number for the supervisor, of which Ron was 'forever'. The time recorded that showed his rhythm after the shock and asystole was "9:59" for many of you, you know that this was Ron's call sign. It caused a chill to run down our spines.

Again what does all this mean, I don't know. I do know that we as a group are one dysfunctional family, but we are family. The scripture says of family, "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." It doesn't say we should, it says we do, we are connected, that is just the way it is. Time will come and go, the freshness of this past week will fade, but may we never forget, we are family.
And on a personal note, as crazy as it gets, I am sincerely honored be a part.