Work, then 911.. (part 1)

I was working with a good friend of mine at the time, We called him George..
We had a few jobs in the next town over to do, but we decided to stick with one of them, and we went to work..

On the drive up, we each took some Xanax.. I'm not sure how much, but enough to make us feel weird... We went to work.. we had a few hours of stuff to do, so we finished some trim up in the guys new kitchen George was building..

The problem was he was a great worker, he was skilled at what he did, but he had a drug problem.. He lived about 20 minutes away from me in a town called Oxford.. He'd been in and out of the drug scene for a long time, but he really took to xanax and dilaudid.. he loved them.

He's been clean for over 3 years now, and he's doing really well.. So I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this.. but it's an important part of my story..

We worked pretty hard that day, and got a lot done... every hour or so we would take another xanax though, which was a bad idea..

He had me vacuuming up in a room downstairs we were working on... The entire time I was working down there, I kept my eyes open for anything worth money...
I didn't find anything that day, but I was looking through some pill bottles that were in that room... I was hoping to find a painkiller or some sort, because I wasn't feeling good today. It had been close to a full day since I had used, so I was feeling pretty gross..

We finished up, and he asked the home owner for a cash advance on our work.. he gave us 200 dollars, and we got in the car and left...
"Can you get us any d's?" George said... "Yeah I can, how many should we get?" "Lets get 4 30's"..

"30's" were big red 30mg time release dilaudid's.. They were around 40 dollars a piece.. So he drove me to a guys house I knew, so I jumped out, and got the pills.
We drove back to George's house.. and Got out 2 plates and two spoons..
We each poured out 1 30 mg pill, and went to work.. we crushed them up, and got ready to snort them..
I asked him for a bill to use, and he handed me 1, he told me to keep it for working today.. I also had 1 other pill in my pocket, and so did he..

We snorted them, and started talking... He was slurring his words, and nodding off... I was on his computer, and started to roll up a joint.. I was talking to a guy I knew, and I told him I would stop over and smoke the joint with him, since he lived close by.

I went back to tell George I would be back in 30 minutes or so... but when I went upstairs he was passed out in the chair... I tried shaking him, but he wouldn't wake up... I felt his chest, and could only feel a faint heart beat... I put my hand just above his mouth.. but I couldn't feel any air going in or out... he wasn't breathing..

I tried shaking him violently... I was yelling at him, and slapping the side of his face.. Nothing would wake him up... I was freaking out, and didn't know what to do... I ran to the computer, and asked the guy I was going to smoke a joint with to come over.. he lived just on the next street over, so it only took him a minute to get there... I was trying to wake George up still, but nothing would work..

I asked the guy who came over to help me take him to the car, I was going to drive him to the hospital... He told me No, and that I should call an ambulance... I told him I would give him 5 grams of weed if he would just help me carry him out.. but he wouldn't.. he left.. And I don't blame him, he was scared.. So was I..

I had no choice, it had been about 5 minutes.. so I called an ambulance, I was crying at this point, and told them to hurry up..

I learned CPR in Cadets, as well as in health class in school.. I started giving him CPR.. I plugged his nose, and breathed into his mouth... then started with chest compressions... his lips were turning dark blue... I stayed calm, and kept preforming CPR.. I could feel his heart beating.. but he wasn't breathing... I kept up with the breathing and compressions until the ambulance got there... They came in, and told me to move out of the way... I told them exactly what he took, and all of the details.. the got a compression bag out and started giving him air... they loaded him onto the stretcher.. I kept asking them how I could help, I was panicking.. they just told me to get out of the way...

-Neil