Death on the Range
- The Bear Pit
- 43 Replies
Happened a while back and I pulled it for obvious reasons, but haven't heard from lawyers so i decided to post it as a lesson for today's society, you never know where the danger will come from, or when.
At the local range a while back and was unfortunately party to this....
Wife and I were shooting at the local range, and while the wife plinked away on the pistol range, I was trying in vain to close my groups on yet another rifle. Wrapped up shooting my 30 rounds or so and was walking towards the other end where she was shooting and the range was cold. Heard a really late round go off and then saw a couple of people gathered around someone laying on the ground, with two full armloads of cases and a gear bag i immediately dropped it all and sprinted to the other end as I did not see my wife anywhere, not in the car,, or standing and so of course I thought the worst. that was a long 75 yards. I found her kneeling over a man checking for vitals and responsiveness, something years as a LEO taught her and was immediately relieved. Now to deal with the poor gentleman that had decided that now was a great time to take a concrete nap. Some years ago, three decades now, I was military and thanks to a bored CO, who looked at me one day and said you're going to school for medic training, I had an idea of what to do although I wasn't sure what had happened, the wife and I exchanged glances and she began her download of what had happened while i checked for abc's, airway, check, breathing, labored and shallow as hell, but check, cardio,,, cardio,,, ah yes, also weak as hell, but there. The wife said he had come over to talk to her, happens a lot to hot wives carrying guns, and mid sentence she said his face went blank, paused a moment, then eyes rolled back and concrete nap ensued. he fell in an awkward position between a brass can and a bench, so the best she could do is left lateral sort of. as my fingers are rather numb most days I asked her to double check for a pulse which we both agreed he had one. C-spine support as best we could and the crowd began to gather. The wife said he had open heart surgery recently, and the scar and wife verified it, and from what she said I'm guessing a cerebrovascular event had rendered him unconscious.
Meanwhile gawking ensued, range officials decided to dial 911, after some debate, and then proceeded to pick up a pad and pencil to take everyones names down for some reason,,, guessing SOP for them rather than get involved. A range official that looked to be 75 and said he was a retired firefighter pushed his way into the crowd and decided not to listen to me spouting old credentials and a sit rep and grabbed the poor bastard by the ankles and drug him back 5 feet flopped him on his back and began to question his wife while attempting a set of vitals, after a 2 second jab into his carotid he determines that he's in cardiac arrest and that my wife and I who were pretty sure the heaving of his chest while he was choking on his tongue from being turned on his back indicated he was not in fact in cardiac arrest, he began CPR, well compressions anyway. It was at this point a floor nurse from the local hospital joined in and relieved him after 15 or so seconds of compressions, and began to stomp on this guys chest with two chubby hands for all she was worth, i attempted to stop them with reason and logic but they had engaged hero mode and decided to disregard everything, after another round of chest compressions she paused, and the guys chest heaved one last time before she resumed compressions, it was at this time the wife and I stepped back. My credentials are waaay out of date, like 5 revisions of CPR out of date and I'm in a new state so pecking order was in question.
It was at this time his wife who was also talking with my wife was a mess, and the wife and I had a short conversation after notepad RO walked by asking for names again and we decided it was time to leave.
Que an ambulance a short period later with an equipped medic that hooked up leads and loaded him into the buss that the nurse threw her hands up in the air in celebration of a successful execution of a living being.
Time to leave we both grabbed out gear and rolled asap.
I never heard what happened to the couple but my guess is he didn't make it, the lips were cyanotic 20 seconds after compressions started so my guess is not viable.
Lessons learned,,, healthcare will kill you faster than you can imagine, and for me, I'm not getting involved unless it's family from now on. On one hand I wish that I would have kept my credentials current, but on the other hand, they didn't' listen to me and unless I was willing to get physical, it wasn't going to end well for that guy. My IDMT trainer in the military said he's straight up kicked people out of the way trying to aid a downed individual, but that was then.
I have a motto, help those you can, and i'm probably not going to change, but this gave us both pause.
At the local range a while back and was unfortunately party to this....
Wife and I were shooting at the local range, and while the wife plinked away on the pistol range, I was trying in vain to close my groups on yet another rifle. Wrapped up shooting my 30 rounds or so and was walking towards the other end where she was shooting and the range was cold. Heard a really late round go off and then saw a couple of people gathered around someone laying on the ground, with two full armloads of cases and a gear bag i immediately dropped it all and sprinted to the other end as I did not see my wife anywhere, not in the car,, or standing and so of course I thought the worst. that was a long 75 yards. I found her kneeling over a man checking for vitals and responsiveness, something years as a LEO taught her and was immediately relieved. Now to deal with the poor gentleman that had decided that now was a great time to take a concrete nap. Some years ago, three decades now, I was military and thanks to a bored CO, who looked at me one day and said you're going to school for medic training, I had an idea of what to do although I wasn't sure what had happened, the wife and I exchanged glances and she began her download of what had happened while i checked for abc's, airway, check, breathing, labored and shallow as hell, but check, cardio,,, cardio,,, ah yes, also weak as hell, but there. The wife said he had come over to talk to her, happens a lot to hot wives carrying guns, and mid sentence she said his face went blank, paused a moment, then eyes rolled back and concrete nap ensued. he fell in an awkward position between a brass can and a bench, so the best she could do is left lateral sort of. as my fingers are rather numb most days I asked her to double check for a pulse which we both agreed he had one. C-spine support as best we could and the crowd began to gather. The wife said he had open heart surgery recently, and the scar and wife verified it, and from what she said I'm guessing a cerebrovascular event had rendered him unconscious.
Meanwhile gawking ensued, range officials decided to dial 911, after some debate, and then proceeded to pick up a pad and pencil to take everyones names down for some reason,,, guessing SOP for them rather than get involved. A range official that looked to be 75 and said he was a retired firefighter pushed his way into the crowd and decided not to listen to me spouting old credentials and a sit rep and grabbed the poor bastard by the ankles and drug him back 5 feet flopped him on his back and began to question his wife while attempting a set of vitals, after a 2 second jab into his carotid he determines that he's in cardiac arrest and that my wife and I who were pretty sure the heaving of his chest while he was choking on his tongue from being turned on his back indicated he was not in fact in cardiac arrest, he began CPR, well compressions anyway. It was at this point a floor nurse from the local hospital joined in and relieved him after 15 or so seconds of compressions, and began to stomp on this guys chest with two chubby hands for all she was worth, i attempted to stop them with reason and logic but they had engaged hero mode and decided to disregard everything, after another round of chest compressions she paused, and the guys chest heaved one last time before she resumed compressions, it was at this time the wife and I stepped back. My credentials are waaay out of date, like 5 revisions of CPR out of date and I'm in a new state so pecking order was in question.
It was at this time his wife who was also talking with my wife was a mess, and the wife and I had a short conversation after notepad RO walked by asking for names again and we decided it was time to leave.
Que an ambulance a short period later with an equipped medic that hooked up leads and loaded him into the buss that the nurse threw her hands up in the air in celebration of a successful execution of a living being.
Time to leave we both grabbed out gear and rolled asap.
I never heard what happened to the couple but my guess is he didn't make it, the lips were cyanotic 20 seconds after compressions started so my guess is not viable.
Lessons learned,,, healthcare will kill you faster than you can imagine, and for me, I'm not getting involved unless it's family from now on. On one hand I wish that I would have kept my credentials current, but on the other hand, they didn't' listen to me and unless I was willing to get physical, it wasn't going to end well for that guy. My IDMT trainer in the military said he's straight up kicked people out of the way trying to aid a downed individual, but that was then.
I have a motto, help those you can, and i'm probably not going to change, but this gave us both pause.
