John Simon was a business executive for a prominent health insurance company. During a seminar on health care management, he sneezed, then sagged out of his chair and slid to the floor. The first thing he saw was the face of the woman who’d sat beside him.
What happened? he asked, but he didn’t recognize his voice or his words as he said them. He reached up, but as he did, his hand seemed to disappear. People gathered round. All of them were talking, but as if from far away. Someone kept saying, 911, 911, 911. Maybe he kept saying it. Faces disappeared and reappeared, but that one woman was always there. He tried to think. She had told him she was once a nurse; now she was a lawyer. She looked very much a nurse now, leaning over him. They had talked about contracts during lunch. What was her name? And he saw his wife momentarily next to her, which was strange because this was a business seminar. He couldn’t remember his wife’s name either.
Two men, young men in uniforms, came to take care of him. He thought they were policemen at first but then realized they were paramedics. They got out their equipment and attached monitor leads and oxygen to him, which was ridiculous. Look at this: now they were trying to take his blood pressure.
What is it? he asked. What’s wrong with me?
Sir, I think you’re having a stroke.
