

Qualia Feast by Monty Fuller
June 10th, 2008 5:56 AMAnyway here is my experience, and here is what I'm trying to describe.
As I've said before, I work in a hospital. A gentleman was standing at my desk and was asking for a wheelchair, earlier today, for his wife, and some help getting her out of the car. I asked him what the matter was with her, and he said "I don't know, she started shaking at home, and fell to the floor. It was all I could do to get her into the car."
I thought about it for a moment, and as i've also stated before, I work at a hospital but I have no medical credentials, but I work at the admissions desk at a hospital.
From my limited knowledge, I knew one of two things, she either had a seizure, which wasn't likely because she should be conscious, but, knowing her age, about seventy or eighty years old, it sounded more like a stroke.
I followed the gentleman out to the front entrance with a wheelchair, and to his car. He opened the passenger side door, and there she was, slumped over in her seat, unmoving. And her eyes weren't moving either. Her leg just kept twitching, but it seemed like a calculated twitch, almost like it was her only way of trying to escape her own body. She was scraping her foot on the ground, like a skateboarder might do. It was eerie.
I helped the man get her into the chair. She must have weighed a hundred pounds. She was scarily thin, and very pale. After seeing people come and go through a hospital everyday, you can usually tell when someones not gonna make it.
I helped the man wheel his helpless wife into the Emergency room, but I had to do so slowly, because, she was twitching her leg, and it was now becoming a hinderance to moving her. So I had to, essentially, push the wheelchair, with the motion of her foot pushing off the ground, almost like she was skateboarding in the wheelchair.
I had to leave the gentleman and his poor wife to let the medical professionals handle it. However, she did have a stoke, and was in a coma when we wheeled her in.
A couple hours ago I checked the computer system, and she had passed away.
What was the most disturbing thing was the woman's husband knew. As I was wheeling her into the ER, he said to me, "More than fifty years... I guess it was a good run..."
I dont know what this story conveys, or if my horrible writing conveys it well, but I think 'sadness' and 'tradgedy' may be some.
I'm gonna include a included a picture of the wheelchair, I dont know what other media to include other than maybe a link to a wiki on strokes and comas?
Lemme know if I did this one properly, thanks.
0609081744.jpg

I had to take this picture in the back room, since, due to patient confidentiality, you cant take pictures inside the hospital, not as an employee at least, and being at the front desk, security has us on camera at all times to make sure they see any bad/suspicious visitors first
17 vote(s)

ENØ Bli33ard
5
Rainy
5
GYØ Ben
5
Tøm
5
teucer
5
Darkaardvark
5
HFXØ Sponty
5
Dela Dejavoo
5
susy derkins
5
Julian Muffinbot
5
Evil Sugar
5
Sparrows Fall
5
LittleMonk
5
teh Lolbrarian
5
H L
5
Jagganath
5
Xena
Terms
(none yet)5 comment(s)
This is the first praxis to actually get me welled up. Great completion.
You got the whole "raw feelings-rich" story into that wheelchair image: I´ll be thinking on feet doing skateboard motions next time I see one. The "I don´t know she started shaking at home" in the context of the "but I think I do know" that went inside your head. Hat is way off.
I´m so happy to have written this task
I've done this task, and I still don't know what qualia really are. But the strong sense of feeling there is amazing. Thank you.
This is a beautiful expression of sadness. It captures the frailty of life and the inevitability of death. The man's comment that fifty years had been a good run changes the entire experience. It is one thing to read this story thinking that the man came to the hospital with hope that his wife would be saved, but the story becomes a different shade of sadness knowing that he knew his efforts were futile.
The gummies applaud you for your efforts here. It is a very moving completion.
Quite moving.