Taco Bell Adventures

My dad and I were at Taco Bell the other day, and I'm eating my food when my dad seemingly randomly gets up, walks over to this elderly couple, and starts talking to the husband (I later found out his name is Joe). I'm watching them and wondering what my dad's doing, when I see the husband basically go blank and stop responding to anything my dad says. He did it again a couple minutes later, so my dad (a paramedic) called 911. From what he and his wife, this has never happened before. They told my dad that Joe takes medication for high blood pressure, but the medication doesn't cause this type of reaction in someone.

My dad knew the life squad crew (part time firefighters, part time ambulance) that showed up because they work at the same station. They hooked Joe up to a bunch of stuff to monitor his heart rate and stuff, which was low but not something to be worried about. They were giving my dad problems because, of course, once they got there Joe was fine other than his slightly low vitals. They finally convinced Joe to let them take him to the hospital. They had him walk, like, 2 feet to a chair that was easier for them to get to him and get him onto a gurney (he and his wife were sitting in chairs up against the window with their backs to it, the table in front of them, and two more chairs facing them and the window), and Joe froze up and became unresponsive again. When he did that, the life squad crew looked at my dad and asked, "This what you were talking about?" ...yup! And when he came to, his heart rate and blood pressure was even lower, like, less than 100/40, and his heart rate was, like, 40 bpm. Joe lost all option on if he was or wasn't going to the hospital...he WAS GOING!

I haven't heard any news on how Joe's doing. I hope he's ok and that the doctors figured out what was going on and were able to fix it. My dad told me later that he went over there because he saw Joe with his head down on the table, unresponsive, and his paramedic instincts just kinda kicked in. I really do hope Joe is ok, but I couldn't help but smile as I suppressed a giggle as I thought of the irony when I saw the ambulance pull into the Taco Bell parking lot.