By Renée Tillotson
Our sons make time every year, in their busy lives as the income-earning fathers of young families, to travel together for a brothers’ trip. As avid surfers, Shankar and Govi generally choose a spot with great waves, often including a friend or two or three. They spend from sun-up to sun-down on the ocean. This year their light-hearted surf trip to Mexico made a sudden shift out of vacation gear. Would they be able to adapt?
The brothers, with their friend James, were driving between one surf break to another on a narrow two-lane road. From behind on-coming traffic, a delivery van driver pulled out into their lane to pass the vehicle in front of him. Meanwhile, our boys were following a guy on a motorcycle. They kept expecting the van to pull back into his own lane. But he never did.
As they watched in helpless horror, the motorcycle and the van made a head-on collision in front of their eyes. Both sets of van wheels drove over the biker. The delivery driver scrambled out of his van and disappeared into the jungle.
Our surfers pulled over and stopped. The young man on the ground was, unbelievably, still alive. And even conscious after a few minutes.
Shankar, our paramedic firefighter son, sprang into action, taking charge of the situation. He is accustomed to gruesome scenes in the course of his job. Govi, as a veteran witness of construction accidents and a couple shark attacks, is no stranger to emergency events. Both of them have also survived their own life-threatening incidents, so they keep their cool.
The scarier things get, the cooler these guys get. The scene slows down into intense focus.
Shankar’s examination of the motorcyclist revealed broken bones in all his limbs as well as his ribs. Unknown spinal condition. The primary concern was the fact that his right foot was barely attached to his leg and he was bleeding profusely.
A police car whizzed by without stopping.
Shankar doesn’t carry his medical kit when he’s off-duty and on vacation. He had no tourniquet and the three surfers were all in board shorts, not wearing belts. How to stop the bleeding?
Govi, used to creative thinking in his construction world, thought of the leashes on their surf boards. They’re strong and flexible, long enough to wrap and tie around a leg. With a board leash, they soon had the bleeding under control.
All the while, their steady, sure presence and reassuring words and tones helped to calm the panic in this young man as he looked at them intently through his dark, pain-filled eyes.
Their friend James surveyed the entire scene in stunned amazement as the two brothers worked side-by-side over this broken body as if it were something they did together every day. James was ready to help when an ambulance finally arrived with only the driver. How that driver was expected to safely get that terribly injured man into the ambulance by himself is a complete mystery. Fortunately, he didn’t need to.
Together, the four able-bodied men got the victim onto a stretcher and on his way to a hospital.
For Govi and Shankar, that was the conclusion of their duty to an unknown person who suddenly needed their assistance. Once Shankar drops off a person at the hospital from one of his fire station rescues, he seldom hears the outcome, what with hospital privacy rules, etc. Shankar’s take-away lesson was to make himself a small urgent care medical kit that he can take anywhere he goes. Other than that, our boys shifted out of emergency response modality and into finishing their vacation.
For James, a people-person par excellence, he needed to follow up with this poor fellow. Shankar didn’t think the young man’s chances of survival were very high. And if he did live, it would undoubtedly be without his right foot. James found out which hospital the man had been taken to. Through their surf trip guide, James got in touch with the injured fellow’s family.
Several weeks later this video (link) arrived by text. The American surfer dudes had saved not only the young man’s life but even his foot. What a relief!. As he looks into the camera from his hospital bed with all of his limbs in casts, you can see the gratitude pouring through his eyes and clearly hear it coming through his voice, even if you don’t know Spanish.
To me this little story, which our sons didn’t even think to tell us about until the follow-up video arrived, says the world about our shared humanity. It doesn’t matter whether or not we know someone or speak their language, if that person needs our help and it is within our wheelhouse to provide it, we do. And we then get back on the waves.
That’s life at the center.
Renée Tillotson
Renée Tillotson, Director, founded Still & Moving Center to share mindful movement arts from around the globe. Her inspiration comes from the Joy and moving meditation she experiences in the practice of Nia, and from the lifelong learning she’s gained at the Institute of World Culture in Santa Barbara, California. Engaged in a life-long spiritual quest, Renée assembles the Still & Moving Center Almanac each year, filled with inspirational quotes by everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dolly Parton. Still & Moving Center aspires to serve the community, support the Earth and its creatures, and always be filled with laughter and friendship!
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This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese)