Pastor Paul’s Passages by Paul Ragle

by PAUL RAGLE

I am one who owes his life to some very well-trained emergency medical technicians and a very good emergency room staff. I was an overweight 46 year-old pastor who still was answering the call to be a sometime athlete. I met my friend Cletus, a much younger and very athletic pastor, at the Greensburg YMCA to play racket ball. Since I am competitive by nature, I played Cletus very hard. We were very evenly matched, but I was pushing myself to reach the toughest shots Cletus laid down. I narrowly managed to win all thee of our first games. We took a break and sat down in the hallway to drink some cold water. I looked over at Cletus and casually said, “Cletus, would you mind going to the front desk and asking them to call 911. I’m having a heart attack.” Cletus answered, “No, you’re not!” I answered straight back, “Yes, I am.” And it felt like a load of bricks had been dumped on my chest. I slid to the floor in pain. Cletus ran to the front desk to make the emergency call. When Cletus returned, I could barely move, I think somebody added more bricks onto my chest. It seemed only moments until the EMT’s were setting their medical kit beside me. The male EMT slipped a nitro pill under my tongue. The Female tech was taking my blood pressure. After lifting me onto their gurney They administered a second nitro pill. And we raced out of the YMCA building and into the ambulance. The ride was a blur, but we were only a block from the Greensburg hospital. They rushed me inside into a room in the ER. I think I was barely conscious, but the next thing I remember, Cletus and my wife were in the ER with me and Dr. Pahl , a cardiologist, was putting some kind of medication into an IV in my arm. It must have been some kind of “happy” juice, because I was a bit high. My wife tells me that I asked Dr. Pahl where his family worshiped and invited him to attend our next church service. I praised him for his most excellent work. When Connee asked if it was the medicine, Dr. Pahl nodded yes. About that time, my blood pressure bottomed and my lights went out. Dr. Pahl had to work some of his emergency room magic to bring me back around. Connee was scared to death. With my condition stabilized, I spent the weekend in the cardiac care unit at Greensburg hospital before they took me into the catheterization lab. Dr. Pahl told me that I needed to have a bypass. I spent 11 days in the Greensburg hospital, recovering from quadruple bypass surgery. I have the utmost admiration and respect for the men and women who put themselves on the front line to help folks in times of emergency. n

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