When I was 16, I had almost lost my cousin who was about three at the time. His mom, kept had kept candy in her purse, but she also had vicodin in her purse. She kept them in similar containers, which of course was not a good idea my any means. I had found out about this because we got a phone call from my aunt asking us to come over.

I didn’t expect the whole house to be in a panic when we entered through the front door. As we walked in, my cousin-in-law came running down the stairs, repeatedly saying, “He’s not breathing!” That is when I saw my mom in action. My mom is a R.N. (registered nurse). My cousin had been “sleeping” for about 3 hours. When I first saw him I was shocked, his lips weren’t the normal shade of red, they were blue, and that was not a good sign.

My mom put her here on his chest and listened. She told us that he was breathing, just faintly. She started to perform C.P.R., and that was what kept him alive until the paramedics arrived. They sprang in to action the second they stepped through the door. I was trying so hard not to cry, I kept telling myself to stay strong, but I lost it and the tears just started running down my face. My aunt was the closest person to me, so we sat there, telling each other that everything was going to be ok. I look up at the paramedics, which was a bad idea. One of them took over performing C.P.R., the other one was preparing an I.V. The paramedic looked up at me and tossed me what looked like a bag of water.

“I’m going to need you to help.” He told me.

I tried to tell him that I was emotional stable to help, but the words wouldn’t come out. So I stood there, holding the bag of fluid, fighting back the tears. Eventually I cracked and someone else took over. The paramedics worked on keeping my cousin alive for 15 minutes to a half hour before they had to take him to the hospital. As I watched them take my cousin out to the ambulance, all I could think about was the thought of what would happen if he died. I have heard about kids that young dying, but I never in a million years thought that it would happen to someone I cared about. Everyone was getting ready to leave; I was the only one who wanted to stay.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” my mom asked as she walked to the door.

“No.” I say as I wipe a tear from my eye.

I sat on the couch and just stared at the T.V. for 10 minutes before turning it on. It felt like time had slowed day, only for a few hours though. After sitting on the couch for an hour, I get a call from my mom telling me that my cousin was fine; I let out a sign of relief.