wwells1@student.cccd.edu
William Wells
Professor Nora Kabaji
English 100
Diagnostic Essay
30 August 2011
Topic of this essay: Explain a situation in your life which made you change your attitude towards a person or an issue. Focus on the change of your attitude and opinion: How and why it occurred.

TraumaOne: As Life Flashes Through Your Head Has there ever been a time when today was the last time a love one or friend would be alive? Not to bring back any bad memories of the past, but the thought of what actions have to be completed to ensure that this particular time by this road on a summer day is not going to be that day. Just a typical afternoon working at the new salon and the owner comes and says “Can you two guys go put up this sign up by the road?” Let us take an imaginary trip through your head of the first three hours after the accident takes place from putting up the sign, to the accident when the life of a friend flashes through your head and finally finding out that the friend is going to recover completely after some time in the hospital. The afternoon was just as any ordinary afternoon of work that gets a new hair salon business up and running. It began with getting supplies together to go clean the marquee before putting the new sign up so that everyone would know that the hair salon that used to be beside Wal-Mart in our town had not gone out of business, just a change of location. Once the supplies were gathered, we headed to the marquee which was located by the major highway (HWY 40) about 50 yards from where the business is located. We began to set up all of the supplies to include the ladders, Windex, rags and tape in order to put the sign up correctly. Shortly after that, we began to put up the sign on the North side of the marquee. The wind was blowing and the ladders were a shaking, but we managed to get up them and get the sign properly installed and safely back down to the ground to start putting up the sign on the South side of the marquee. On the South side of the marquee, the wind was not as bad but the end result was tremendously worst. It began by putting up the ladders and other equipment from preparing the sign correctly, to tearing the paper of the backside of the sign, to sticking it on to the marquee. As we made the final touches on the sign before proceeding to the ground the most unduly thing happened. I cleared the ladder from coming back to the ground, turned around and for a split second say something that would change the way I live my life. My buddy had slipped and fell from 11 feet nine inches of the top of the ladder and had landed on the asphalt motionless. I checked to see if he was breathing and then called 911 after a brief pause to gather my thoughts. The 911 dispatcher answered the phone, “Sir, is the patient breathing?” I replied, “Hold on let me check if he is breathing from the head wound or his nose. Ma’m, he is breathing from his nose, but has not answered to his name.” The dispatcher said, “Sir, I am sending the police, and ambulance to respond to the scene, if anything else changes while they are in route, give us a call back.” The first responder took about seven minutes to get to the scene, which felt like an eternity. Three minutes later, the fire engine and behind it was the ambulance. The paramedics took over and the sheriff took me aside to get information and get in touch with his family. I contacted his mother to let her know what had happened and that I would keep her posted as they continued to assess the condition that he was in and to determine the future care of him. Ten minutes after the paramedics arrived on the scene, they told me that they were going to life flight him from the airport in St. Marys to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville Florida because of the massive head trauma that he had received. The severity of the head injury usually means a long recovery or no recovery at all due to the blood on the brain and inflammation that is caused by the blood. Thirty five minutes into the response to the accident, we were on the way to the St. Marys airport to watch a dear friend be life flighted to the hospital. The moments after where mind wrenching and felt like it was going to cause a nervous breakdown from the airport to the house where I broke the news to another friend. One hour later, sitting in the Emergency Room waiting area, we were informed that the injuries that have been received where not detrimental and that after eight or nine days in the hospital he should recover fully. The life of a friend and the ones that love him were relieved and the thought that he will be here tomorrow was of greatest concern. The moral behind the story is that if we do not live our lives each and every day and worry about what people think, we will lose some of the moral values that we hold dear. The life of a friend, love one, or anyone that you have to take care of always flashes through your head when the one caring for them are beside them. The lives of others change you as a person in that the actions took to ensure that there life is saved or as a professional has made a better person just for the outcome of the situation.