Rim Semiconductor Company (fka RSMI)

[spokeshave]

A (grand)father's day story.

This is a true story of what has happened in my life over the last 24 hours. I apologize for it being off-topic, but I wanted to share it.

I have never been a religious man.

Last night, my beautiful, sweet 3 year-old grandaughter drowned. My daughter and her family were having a father's day vacation in nearby Gatlinburg. My daughter, her husband Scott and the three children, Macie (7), Hannah (5) and Blaise (3) were enjoying the hot tub at the hotel, when they decided it was time to get out. Macie took her little sister to go out to the pool area while my daughter and the rest of her family gathered their belongings to call it a night. As they walked past the pool to catch up to Macie and Blaise, they saw Macie, but did not see Blaise. My daughter called out to her, becoming more and more concerned. She could not have been out of her sight for more than 2 minutes. As my daughter grew more panicked, Scott saw Blaise suspended in the water in the deep end of the pool. He immediately jumped in and pulled her lifeless body from the water. She had stopped breathing, her heart had stopped, and she had turned blue. Both he and my daughter believed that we had lost beautiful Blaise.



Then a miracle happened.



As it happened, there were two EMTs and an RN vacationing in the samee hotel. They heard the commotion and immediately came to Blaise's aid. All three were trained in toddler CPR and they immediately began efforts at resuscitation. After a few chest compressions and breaths, Blaise spit up a lungful of water, coughed and began to scream. Meanwhile, a LifeFlight helicopter had been dispatched from UT medical Center, about 60 miles away. Blaise was flown to the UT Children's Hospital, and Scott called me and Mrs. Spokeshave since we are about 25 minutes away from the hospital, and they were over an hour away by car. I was down in the shop when the call came in and the frantic LOML began screaming for my help. We immediately left for the hospital. She was originally going to be sent to the UT Medical Center Trauma Center, so that is where we went first. When we arrived there, after what seemed like a 10 hour drive, they told us she was not there and that she had been diverted to Children's, but they could not tell us anything about her condition. All we knew at this point was that she had been pulled from the bottom of the pool and had stopped breathing.

So, we got in the car once again and made the interminable drive just down the street to the Children's Hospital. When we got to the ER, they immediately took us back to her. All the while, I had been composed and calm because I knew that I needed to get both of us there safely, but when I entered her room, and saw that precious child moving, and her eyes caught mine, and she said "Poppy!" and beamed a beautiful smile, I simply broke down.

She was kept overnight to watch for pulmonary edema, and/or pneumonia, which sometimes follow inhalation of chlorinated water, but the Docs say she will be fine. She seemed alert and coherent, and we even talked about the things she was doing in Gatlinburg. All of these are good signs that she will not suffer any permanent brain damage. She is home now.

I firmly believe that God saved my precious little Blaise tonight. Thank you, God, and I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

For all of you who have children or grandchildren, hug them tight...and learn CPR.

In case you want to put a face to the name, here is Blaise all decked out for her 3rd birthday party last month.



At least for now, all of my problems and day-to-day trials and tribulations seem trivial and meaningless. I hope that the one thing I learn from this is to keep things in life in proper perspective.

Tim