Ever since I could recall I had wanted to be a nurse. However, many events in my life have validated my decision. There’s the fact that I would be a third-generation nurse in my family and carrying down the family tradition. Also, when I was born, I had to stay in the NICU for a month and it would be very rewarding to work there. But when my father had his cardiac arrest, it made me see that this was truly the profession that I wanted to pursue. March 19th is a day that will forever be in my memory. Five minutes out of that day was all it took to change my life forever. It started as an ordinary Sunday with a family breakfast. The smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs lingered in the air, like an old-fashioned diner. Then my father’s health declined rapidly as he began experiencing intense pain on the right side of his body. My mother then drove him to the emergency room and on the way, he went into cardiac arrest. They did not make it far, at the stoplight behind our house he began to turn blue. I recall sitting in my bedroom listening to the many emergency vehicles pass by and thinking nothing of it. The sounds of sirens were as if a catastrophic event had taken place. My mom then had to find a way to lay him flat on the ground to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, so she grabbed him from the passenger seat and laid him on the asphalt. As my mom was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation a group of strangers had gathered around to form a prayer circle. When the paramedics attended to him, they were able to shock his heart back into rhythm and then they loaded him onto the gurney to transport him to a hospital. When my mother had informed us as to what had happened, we immediately anticipated the worst outcome. My grandpa brother and I rushed to the car and drove straight to the hospital. The 30-minute wait while they stabilized him was agonizing. My sister drove from work to be there and she was hysterical. All I remember was her screaming on the phone to her boyfriend “He’s going to die! He’s going to die!” while bawling her eyes out. Shortly thereafter we were allowed to have visitation, where I was able to see him intubated in a medically induced coma. Later that day he was transferred to the University of Maryland intensive care unit, where they were able to lower his body temperature to preserve any of his potential brain function. He was supposed to be induced in this coma for 72 hours, but my dad has an aversion towards the cold, and he ended up waking up prematurely. For some reason I decided to go to school the very next day on Monday, my classmates were unaware of the ordeal I had just gone through. I was able to have a short conversation with him until moments later he would forget who I was. As the news spread as to what had happened to our family, friends and family rallied around us. My dad had around a dozen visitors daily while he was in the hospital. Our community prepared meals for us and made sure the house was looked after while we tended to my dad. After a week in the ICU he was released and went into the cardiac care unit. After several MRI scans the doctors determined that a possible electrical malfunction with his cardiovascular system could have caused the arrest, so he had surgery to implant an internal defibrillator. The fact that he flatlined for five minutes and was able to recover baffled all doctors and will be a medical mystery. Most people with this condition end up with major brain injuries and reduced cognitive functions. I admire his strength and his connection to god, which he claims saved his life. The doctors could give us no medical reason for his recovery, only that it was a miracle. The strangers that formed a prayer circle around him were a sign from above. My dad has always had a strong affiliation to being Christian and he raised me that way as well. After the ordeal he was able to go home, and we were so grateful that he was alive and flourishing. For the first two weeks after he got home, he had severe short-term memory loss and asked many questions, but I helped him through it by making him a journal of the events that took place in chronological order. His memory was that of a goldfish, but patience was key to help him recover. He had some trouble walking and was sometimes unaware of his surroundings but the worst part for him was the intense sore throat he sustained after the removal of the intubation tube. My father showed immense perseverance to be able to pull through his trauma. He has inspired me to pursue a career in nursing so I can one day care for people. While he was in the hospital, I met his amazing team of doctors and nurses who were there to guide us every step of the way. We still keep in touch with his ICU nurse who is still baffled of how he recovered. She said being in the cardiac ICU in particular most people don’t make it out ok, because the heart is such a vital organ in our bodies. The experience I had brought to fruition how fragile life actually is. It taught me to appreciate the people I have around me and encouraged me to give back to humanity. It shows how those five minutes could have been the difference between life or death and that everything happens for a reason. I hope to do this by pursuing a career in nursing and being able to take care of other people.
Reflection
I decided on the message of my narrative based on the events that took place and the use of ethos throughout to build an emotional connection. The message I chose is to be grateful for who is in your life because they can be taken away in an instance. The planning I did for my narrative was to first build a topic and then decide on a message and then fill in the gaps. I started by dividing my outline into three sections with the intro, body and conclusion. Along the way I added more sensory details, redid the framework to make the first paragraph the present, the middle the past and the conclusion the present again. In the final draft I was tasked with adding more dialogue and include more of an analysis for my sensory details. To begin these revisions, I had to look back at the event and decide which details to incorporate. The in-class comments helped me to revise my essay by adding more details and solidify my message. My peers encouraged me to add more of the rhetorical devices and supporting details. Reviewing someone else’s work made me see that I need to not only tell the story but describe it with enough detail to engage the reader. The class activity of reviewing “The Storm in Fragments” helped me to develop my personal narrative. The feedback from the conference helped me to properly turn in my narrative and rethink my format and when to use present and past tense. The parts of the process that were helpful include the two rough drafts and opportunity to revise the essay twice. A new technique I will incorporate into any future narratives is the format of present, past and then present again. When first starting this assignment I would give myself the advice to make sure my essay is properly turned in and to check in with the teacher if I’m having issues.