After a bit, I hear water sloshing and the black haired girl say "shit, there he goes" as the guy folds himself down inside the water basin and thrashes until he's completely lodged, head about 4 inches under water. We both jump up, but he's completely jammed down in there. The girl just runs out of the room saying she's going to get help. As I reach into the basin to try to grab some part of him to pull him out, his eyes are open and I see him start to gulp and choke down water. His eyes close, I scream "fuck!" and brace myself against the side to try to jiggle him loose. Nothing. I decide I have to slide him out. I grab the only thing I can think of, his ears, and put my foot on his knee and slide. This works, but I know now how badly this guy is out because being lifted by your ears is one of the most painful things ever. ( I know this because my cousins used it as punishment when we were little and referred to is as "The Rodman". )
I quickly think it's best to lug this asshole out into the shopping center where there are more people so I can get some help. As I'm pulling him, I jam my knee into his back a few times hoping to cause him to cough up some of the water, but nothing. As I lie him down, I scream my roommates name as loud as I can (as he's apparently shopping there) and I can hear him running toward me. I figure if I can get compressions started, even though my Roomie's lungs are going to be full of smoke and whiskey, he's going to put twice as much air into this guy's lungs as I can with one breath. But... just as he runs up, I realize that nobody even cares that there is a soaking wet, clearly unconscious man lying on the ground, not even my Roommate. They are all looking down like "fuck that drunk asshole, he deserves to drown in a bowl of his own misery". I only give this a split second of thought because I take the other part of that second to decide on either long, deep compressions or short bursts. I decide quick ones, I start low, hoping to stimulate his lungs, but maybe push out some water as well. I start counting out loud, 1-2-3-4-5.. and up to 10. At about 6, I look up and tell Roomie to suck in the biggest breath he can, but he's just looking down frozen, so I start inhaling. I don't yell, I don't ask anyone else for help, I know I have to go full steam ahead because my Dad always said panic leads to hesitation and someone needs every second you've got.
When I tilt the guy's head back and breath as much as I can get down into him, it felt like when you would blow in your straw to make bubbles as a kid, but on a larger scale. I can actually hear it gurgling. That's how full of water the guy is. As soon as I go for a second round of compressions, I start slowly, deeply breathing in again. People are shopping around me, some stop to look, but keep moving, Roommate stands there motionless. I reach ten and suck in enough where I feel dizzy, open his mouth, squeeze his nose shut, and pray this bastard throws up in my mouth this time. I squeeze my eyes shut, breath out into him and as I'm getting the last bit out, I feel him jolt a little and my eyes shoot to his and I see him squeezing them shut. I come up for more air and breathe a little more down into him and I can feel him start to gag. Just as he starts to convulse a little, and I'm rolling him on his side, I'm watching for all the water to come splashing out, his eyes snap open, he draws in to expel..... and I wake up. I am wide awake. Eyes open. But I am not out of breath. I am perfectly still breathing deeply and evenly.
All I can think at that moment is.... "did I even check his pulse? Should I have been doing compressions on someone if they had a pulse? I can't remember. Does that work for his lungs too or just for a heartbeat? Should I have been using slower compressions? Did hitting his back fill his lungs more? Would he have breathed sooner if I hadn't done that? Shit, I need to take a class, I'm going to be the reason someone fucking dies if this really happens." My father was a fireman and CPR instructor for years and now, all I can think about, is how disappointed he would be if he knew I was lying awake at 3:54 am not knowing these things.
The next thing I think is "Damn.... I wonder if that guy has any brain damage. And what did he have to drink?"
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