After a traumatic event earlier this year, I’m feeling ready to tell the story (as far as I remember it), so hopefully getting it out of my head will help me with moving on since these events are at the forefront of my thoughts pretty much all the time and also while trying to sleep. I’m doing much better than I was several months ago:) I broke the story up into 4 parts: the background, the discovery, the aid, and the aftermath. (Part 1 of the story was published at http://www.josharch.com/blog/tragic-event-part-1)
[PART 2] The Discovery.
As I approached the door of the 10’x10’ “cabin”, I noticed the foggy windows. I could barely see inside because there was so much condensation. I also felt creepy looking into someone’s windows. I knocked. No answer (obviously), but I felt obligated to knock since I didn’t want to believe there were dead people in there. I yelled, “I’m Josh, I’m here to help you” as I opened the door. I looked down, and I saw two lifeless unclothed bodies, a (very) dead stiff dog, and a struggling dog that was responsive. They were all laying on the floor atop sleeping bags. The bunk bed was empty, and the single room cabin smelled like death (whatever that smells like). It was the combination of sweat, urine, blood, and no ventilation whatsoever.
My first thought was to go verify that the bodies were dead. It seemed like a textbook thing to do although they were obviously not alive. I said “hello hello hello” a few times as I balanced through the tiny cabin stepping over items on the minimal floor space toward the first lady thinking about how scary and disturbing it would be to try to take a pulse from a lifeless body. With no floor space to stand on, I straddled over top of the lady and started to bend down toward her. As I got closer, her stomach moved and she gasped!
My mind raced. What should I do next? I was about to yell for Taylor to come help me move her out of that space, but I didn’t get a chance. As I pondered what to do, Taylor came in the back door. As he jiggled the door handle, the second lady’s eye, which was wide open, blinked. Taylor and I looked at each other as we both noticed they were alive!
We looked around the cabin to see what was happening. No guns. No drugs. No pills. No needles. Not even any alcohol on the table or refrigerator. I told him it must be carbon monoxide, and we should turn the gas off and get them outside immediately. Taylor found the shutoff valve for the propane tank as I noticed the refrigerator, stove, and hot water tank were all powered by propane. I also noticed there was not any ventilation. There were no windows that could open. That’s when I realized these ladies probably went to sleep Thursday night, missed their boat Friday morning, laid there all day Friday, and had been inhaling carbon monoxide until this moment around noon on Saturday.
The ladies were both laying on mattresses on the floor. It must have been too hot and stuffy to stay on the bunk beds with no ventilation, so I assume they stripped down and slept on the floor to stay cool. This worked to our advantage. We were able to lift the first lady by lifting the mattress and carrying her outside on top of it. While we started to do this, the living dog was confused and snippy. It took a few bites at us. The dead dog was keeled over atop of the lady we were about to lift. As we lifted her, I noticed the insides of the dog were coming out of its mouth. I told Taylor to pause as I lifted the stiff, lifeless dog by its rear leg. I intended to gracefully and respectfully set it outside, but it “spilled” as I carried it. I ended up tossing it out the door to prevent making a mess on top of the lady. I felt so sad for the way that happened as I focused my attention back to helping Taylor pickup the lady.
We carried her out of the shack by the mattress, set her down in the grass, and quickly went to do the same with the other lady. At that time, a few people started to gather. The woman who found the ladies rushed off to get some water and towels, and her husband helped Taylor and I carry the other lady outside. Although we got both ladies outside, they were still unresponsive, there was not yet noticeable signs of regular breathing, and their pulses were very faint. They felt very hot.
No matter what I did or said, I could not get the ladies to respond in any way. They wouldn’t talk, blink, or squeeze my hand when requested. They just laid there dead and pale looking with eyes wide open and lips crusted. Where we set them down in the grass outside the shack, I noticed my head was casting a shadow on their face. When I moved my head, the direct sunlight made their eyes subtly close. They shut about 3/4 of the way when the sun hit them, and they slowly opened back up when I shielded the sun from them. This made me so happy to see some sort of response even though it was just a partial blink. This gave me hope even though the eyes never moved, never focused on me, and never tracked my finger from side to side.
Next, we moved them into the shade since it was a really hot, sunny day, and it was clear they would be more comfortable in the cool shade. This is when the next decisions of the rescue would decide the fate of these ladies. Part 3 of the story explains the aid efforts in further detail: http://www.josharch.com/blog/tragic-event-part-3