This was an actual event that took place a couple of years ago, it was about this time of year....
It was one of those great weeks. I was commenting to everyone before church who dared to ask how my week had been, my reply was ' it has been a fantastic week'. I have gained the reputation at church as one of those people who answers the question 'how are you?' with very honest answers. If you didn't want to know you shouldn't have asked, right. Because of what happened later that day, I still cannot recall what the sermon was about. But I remember, because it happens alot, I got a case of the Jimmy legs towards the end and began to move around the church. I have this quiet little corner beside the sound guy where I am out of the way and usually go unnoticed. As I stood there, an overwhelming need to begin to cry came over me. I fell to my knee's and asked God who I was supposed to be crying for. Usually at that point, I can look around the church and see someone in need of prayer or just someone who needs a loving hand placed on them. But this time, there was no one. The service ended and we were all glad handing like we usually do, telling each other to have a good week and what not. Thats when a girl from the pre-k room grabs my attention and motions to me, she is in a state of panic. My first thought was someone was in trouble and I needed to go help, I usually rip open my shirt exposing the giant S and prance off singing 'here I come to save the day', figuratively of course. The girl grabbed me by the arm and said 'she is having a seizure'. So I start formulating my game plan on what to do, I have done that before a thousand times over. When I enter the pre-k room I look down and see a small child on the floor flat on her back, no one else is in the room except the pastor, his mom, me, and the girl who brought me. I looked a little closer and recognized the little dress the little girl was wearing, I knew it becaue I had put it on her, it was Cameron. That is when God took over, I did not panic, my thoughts were not my own, I became like a robot. I layed down on the floor beside her, I gently turned her on her side, her tongue had rolled back and she was choking on her spit. She was having a full blown seizure, head to toe. I placed my chest on her legs to keep them still, put my hand under her head so she would stop banging the floor. I don't blame those already in the room for not doing anything, they had no idea what to do. The girl who came and got me confessed that she came to me because it was my child, she had no idea I am an EMT. I kept my voice down and asked for an ambulance, and this is what impresses me the most. The ladies of our church when called to action respond in a second, because it wasn't but a second later that I heard cell phone buttons being pushed to 911. After about a minute Cameron stopped seizing, and began to come to. I said aloud that I need something for her to throw up in and in half a second there was a garbage can lid right there, which she immediately filled. I said very quietly that I need something to wipe her mouth and face off with, and in half a second I had wet paper towels in my hand. I asked if someone in the church could see to my other two children, you see, Heateher came to the early service and was already back at work. That is when they told me that that was already taken care of, by those blessed beautiful church women. I asked if someone could please notify my wife, and was told that someone was already on the way to get her. Once the ambulance got there I was relieved to see the two guys get off of it, I knew both of them. I gave a brief patient report to the paramedic, he quickly told me to scoop her up and lets go. Cameron at this point was what we call post-ictal, that is the state of confusion after a seizure, what was bad was she kept passing out. Here is where it got tough on me. We get in the ambulance and I sit down on the stretcher, I have Cameron in my lap laying on her back on my chest. I tell the paramedic fully what I had seen and done and do whatever I can to help him get an IV and all the other equipment on her, all the while trying to keep her awake, she was what we call, unresponsive. Not completely, she would respond sometimes to verbal and all times to painful stimuli. We get going down the road, the paramedic calls the hospital and gives a report, and thats when it happened. I looked down at my youngest, and from the position I was in, all I saw was the 'pretty' purple bow that I had placed in her ponytail that morning. She just had to have that pretty little bow to go with her pretty purple polka-dotted dress. I looked down at my baby and saw the pretty outfit that she had on, that I had helped her put on, and realized that here my pretty little baby was laying lifeless in my arms. I prayed, I cryed, I still cry when I think about it. That was the moment that God told me that I had done all I can do for her, and that He would handle it from there on. We got to the hospital and when the Dr's realized I was an EMT and 'should' listen to me I gave her to them and started making phone calls. It turned out to be a long day. She stayed in the post-ictal state for more than three hours. So Heather and I spent all that time trying to coax Cameron back to life. Heather knew that something wasn't right, she said she could tell by the way I was acting that this wasn't normal. Some folks from the church came down and we made a circle around her and prayed, and prayed and prayed. Suddenly, my little girl looks up, realized that she is holding a crayon that I had placed in her lifeless hand, and began to color. She colored Belle from Beauty and the Beast. We played UNO with her, and not long after that, we were taking her home. It was determined that the seizure was caused by a fever, not just a high grade fever, but a fever that kept going up and down, which is why no one knew she was even sick.
Since that day I have gotten a lot of praise from those who witnessed what I did. I remind them that no matter what they saw, or how they think it went, do not praise me, give all the glory to God. Because he was with us that day. You see, I remember very vividly that when I carried my child out to the ambulance, there were many gathered around. Most never knew I was carrying my own child. But what I heard from several voices as I walked past was, thank God James has her. I said quietly to myself as I say it to you all now, No, Just Thank God.
Her drawing of Belle still hangs on my refirgerator to this day. JT
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