Seizure At Dinnertime

Have you ever been walking along with a friend and for no apparent reason, your friend falls? Did you just burst out laughing, unable for a couple of seconds to even ask them if they were o.k.? This is often referred to as 'shock' humor. Sometimes when something is shocking we use humor as a coping mechanism. For many of us this is an automatic response and can be embarrassing.

It had been a long day at the detox and I had been asked to stay on a little later to help get supper out to the patients. The food at the detox was actually quite good. We had a cook that would come in and Monday through Friday. Then on the weekends we counselors would heat up and serve meals that the cook had prepared in advance for the weekend.

The patients would pick up a tray to put their food on then proceed to an open window of the kitchen to get the hot item being offered. Next, they would go to several tables that had other items such as salad, chips, and the assorted condiments.

Well on this particular night the line had been moving along quite nicely. Bob one of our frequent flyers at the detox had just placed his tray on one of the side tables to make himself a salad. As he placed tongs into the large salad bowl to help himself he suddenly went into a seizure.

The result was he went straight back and the salad tongs flew upward spewing salad everywhere. I remember diving towards him to prevent his head from hitting the floor and screaming for staff. As I was kneeling next to Bob with several other staff members, I glanced up and looked right at two other patients that had been behind Bob at the salad table. One of them turned to the other and said, “Boy, that really was a tossed salad Fred, huh?”

I wanted to burst out laughing but the gravity of the situation at that point in time would not allow me to do so. Shortly afterwards however I was able to laugh once we knew Bob was o.k.

There is a reason that the masks of comedy and tragedy are always shown together. They really are closer than most of us realize. A slight turn in one direction or another and either can be the result.