Something happened at my workplace today. The event made me realize a lot of things, First and foremost is that- life is really too short. In a snap of finger it can be taken away from you. Who would have thought that the person we were just talking to the night before would suddenly die of cardiac arrest?
I was about to take my second and last break for the day when someone passed by and told us to wake up “Benhur”. With the way the statement sounded, it came across as a sarcastic joke to me. I really thought that Ben was sleeping on the job. I stood up and took a glance at Ben nonetheless and saw the most unforgettable sight that I believe I would remember for the rest of my life. I saw the sight of a person who was dying. Maybe because right then and there I already had an inkling that he was going to die so my reaction was kind of "out of character". Instead of coming near him like what my two officemates, James and Nessa did, I ran around to look for the nurse. When I didn’t find the nurse, I went to the HR office instead. It was as if I didn’t want to have any involvement in what’s going on so I tried to look for someone to pass on the buck. Even when I saw that people were already crowding in the area where he was being tended, I didn’t even took a glance at the dying form. I can just hear them panicking and all, but I never really went near them. That is realization no.2.- I haven’t gotten over the death of my father. I cannot go near Benhur because the look that I saw was the exact look that I saw when my father was also dying so I didn’t want to confront the helplessness. I knew that there was little that I could do. Maybe I really haven’t gotten over the trauma of losing my father so I didn’t want to have anything to do with any other person’s death.
Even if I wasn’t looking though, I heard everything that happened. I heard them say that he had peed on his pants. I heard them say that his hands were already blue. I heard them say that a tear dropped from his eyes when he was being helped by my officemates. It was really like listening to a show over the radio. I heard everything but I didn’t have the heart to look at the scene. Since I heard everything I also know that there was considerable delay before he was finally brought to the hospital. There was no evident support from the back office people to actively look for a vehicle so he can be brought to the hospital. The nurse may not have also been trained for the situation, or she might just have panicked that she forgot to perform CPR. There were people in the group of onlookers who wanted to do so but was either afraid or shy to come forward and do so. That brings me to realization no. 3-that my office was not and is not prepared for situations like this. The company as big as this should have an “On-Call Doctor for this type of emergencies. It’s common knowledge that this industry is stress prone so it should have been management’s initiative to have contingency plan.
He was declared dead after an hour in the hospital but I guess he was already dead even when he was still here. Based on the account of those who were carrying him, they heard him expel out a very deep breath that sounded like a snore. According to some people, that could have been his last breath.
I feel sad for his family. I don’t know how they are coping and how they wouild be able to cope with it. I feel bad for his children because I know how it is to be fatherless myself. They would be celebrating Christmas without a father and his upcoming birthday would just become a birth anniversary. His aunt even said that Benhur has a lot of plans for the future. He was vocal on his plan to go abroad. In a way, he has gone abroad. Abroad to eternal life.
Life indeed is precious. Let us not waste it on petty things.
To our dear comrade Benhur, may your soul rest in peace!
