The Old Man

Saturday was the end of the year of the dragon on the Lunar calendar.  Everyone that observes the Lunar New Year was busy preparing for the yearly festivity, and even I had been summoned to help cleaning my parents' house.  All the sisters agreed to be home at 11am to clean till about 2pm.

I woke up around 8 that morning, and stayed in bed to read and play with Chloe for a bit.  Some time after 9, Minh went up to the front house to do the laundry, but did not come back for a while.  Then he popped back in as I started to doze again, and said that the old man wasn't waking up.

The old man is a 76-year-old man that my mother-in-law looks after.  They met at the temple, where he had lived for a long time.  He only speaks Vietnamese, so every morning when I leave for work, as he stands in the drive way exercising, I would nod or smile at him.  Minh speaks to him occasionally, in broken Vietnamese.  Basically we don't know much about this old man. 

My mother-in-law left for Vietnam a few weeks ago, for someone's wedding and long-due vacation.  Honestly I have no clue if she left any instructions on what to do in case of anything with the old man.  So when Minh said that he wasn't waking up, I quickly put on my coat and shoes, and followed him to the big house to see what was going on.

The old man is usually up and about early every morning.  I can hear his chronic cough as early as 6am.  So when Minh's uncle tried to wake him up to take his medication, they realized that he was unconscious.  Not knowing what to do, they grabbed Minh while he was coming back from the front house.  Minh's cousin was able to get my mother-in-law on the phone, and she told us to lay him on the side.  And after a few minutes of discussion, we decided to not waste any more time, and call 911.

The ambulance came, and EMT assessed his situation, and decided to rush him to the nearest ER.  Since most people living in the big house didn't speak English, and Minh was still in his pajama, I jumped in the car and met the EMT at the ER.

The nurses and doctors asked a lot of questions about his medical background, and honestly, all I knew from what my mother-in-law had just told us, was that he had asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  Any allergies?  I didn't know.  Your relationship with the patient?  I hesitated and said with doubt in my voice, "friend?"  Then I explained to them that although I see him almost every day, I don't know much about him, and the person that takes care of him is out of the country.

Minh arrived shortly, and answered some more questions with answers that he just got from his mom.  We provided our name and phone number, and sat nearby to wait.  When the nurses wheeled him away for CAT scan, we rushed home quickly to pack a few things and snacks, readying ourselves to spend the whole day at the ER.

When we got back to the ER, he had come back from the CAT scan, still unconscious.  The doctor said that he was critically ill, with blood pressure dropping very low, and instructed us to wait in the waiting room and said that he would let us know any updates.

By the afternoon, we got the news that he was stabilizing, and would be transferred to the ICU, once a room became available.  So we continued to wait.  By then, Minh had not slept for over 24 hours and dozed off a bit.  Poor thing, he was exhausted. 

Finally, the nurse called us over and told us that they had transferred to the ICU, and gave us the room number.  We quickly went to see him.  He was still unconscious, but the blood pressure was coming back up.  Whew~

During the wait, Minh's mom instructed him to call a guy at the temple, and gave him the phone number.  Minh called, and found out that the guy only spoke Vietnamese, so he did his best to communicate with him.  However, the guy was nothing but cold and rude.  After Minh introduced himself, and explained why he was calling, the guy interrupted him with "so is he dying or not?"  Minh was shocked, needless to say.  He explained to him that no, doesn't seem like the old man was dying, but was in critical situation, with the doctor trying very hard to save him.  Another question came from the guy:  "then why are you calling me?"  Minh was speechless.  The guy went on to tell him that since it was Lunar New Year's eve, they were very busy with the preparation and that if anyone were to come, it would have to be the next day.

As I write this, nobody from the temple has called to find out how the old man is, at which hospital he is staying, or the room number.  Nothing.  And this old man has been going to that temple for YEARS!  And he used to live there!  So what happened to the love that is constantly preached at the temple?  Not just love to others, but your own brother in God? 

We plan to visit him every night after work, and hopefully he would be moving out of ICU to regular room soon.  He's still being fed liquid through a tube, and breathing with a tube down his throat.  It can't be comfortable.  And I can only imagine the horror he experienced when he first woke up, at a strange place, with his arms restrained (to prevent him from panicking and pulling on the tubes), while nobody spoke Vietnamese. 

We visited him yesterday, and after a few attempts to talk to him, he woke up.  He tried to talk but couldn't, so we had to guess what he might be trying to tell us.  I kept coming up with questions for Minh to ask him, and finally we figured out that he was hungry.  The nurse was happy to hear that, and administered the liquid food into his feeding tube.  Being hungry is a good sign, I think.

At this point, his situation is looking better.  I just pray that he continues to recover.  As for those temple people, I'm beyond disappointed.