CATAGORIES: GENERAL NONSENSE — cj @ 4:02 pm

This has been a very exciting and extremely sad day for me. An employee from an office out of town was here for meeting with the big boss today. He complained of having the flu and had been out all week. The meeting was mandatory so he had to come. I was on the phone trying to help one of our attorneys when someone from the back came running down the hall yelling “does anyone know CPR?” I handed my phone to someone who was next to my desk and took off running along with my boss to the back office. On the floor, being giving CPR by the big boss, was the man who complained of having the flu. He was not breathing and had no heart beat. We switched off giving him air, while the big boss gave the chest compressions. It seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only two or three minutes before Capitol Police arrived with a defibrillator. At this point, we had managed to get him to breathe, but barely. We were ordered out of the office by the police. Soon afterward the fire department arrived and then finally an ambulance showed up with a gurney. They were in the office what I thought was way too long and I just knew it wasn’t going to be good. When they finally wheeled him out they were giving him chest compressions. An attorney overhead the ambulance man tell his companion to call their hospital and let them know they were bring in a full code, which means they could not get his heart to beat. In less than an hour we were informed that the employee had died. I am at a loss at this moment. I can’t think, I can’t do any work, I can’t even cry. The big boss is in his office with the door shut and has never came out since they took the employee away. I’ve never worked anywhere where someone had this type of emergency. I am glad I know CPR and this was the first time I had to use it on an actual human being. I wish it had been enough. So much for mandatory meetings. I guess someone bigger than the big boss who works here had a mandatory meeting scheduled for the employee and he was not made aware of it in advance. The last thing he said to one of my co-workers was please get the flu shot, this stuff is really bad and take care of yourself. I’m sure those words will not be forgotten very soon.