JUNE 27, 2015, 7:15 AM.

THE DAY I DIED

"THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH IS AN INSTANT"

JAIME ALVAREZ

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and as usual I was up bright and early. By 6: am, I had already prepared our morning coffee and was now busy in my garden tending to my tomato and chili plants. My daughter Elena, my wife, and I have an almost sacred tradition of having coffee together every morning. I love our ritual.

Saturday's are special because Elena doesn't have to work. Who could have known that this particular Saturday would change our lives forever. Elena is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with the Palm Springs Unified School District's Mental Health. I was especially excited that morning to share with Elena a high school picture of my varsity baseball team that I had posted on Facebook the night before. The resemblance between her son, Victor, and myself when I was in school was striking. I headed to my bedroom asking Elena to follow me. I wanted to retrieve the posted photograph on Facebook. The wonderful aroma of my delicious cup of coffee filled the air. I showed my daughter a team picture of my varsity baseball team. I was kneeling in the front row of the photograph. The year was 1967 and I was only seventeen years old. My daughter said, "Wow! Victor does look a lot like you, dad, when you were young."

Elena left the room and started talking with her mother in the kitchen, which is next to our living room. I stayed sitting on my chair, with a smile on my face, and a warm feeling of what a truly blessed man I was. That was the last memory I had. My life came to an abrupt and unexpected end.

Have you ever wondered how your loved ones would react if you died? I'm amazed and intrigued that I have been given privilege to know the answer.

I have cried many tears of gratitude when reading my wife's and daughter's accounts of the day I died. It was my loved ones who really suffered witnessing me drop dead in front of them. I went to the most peaceful and serene place that is unimaginable, unless you have been there yourself, but of course that would mean you would have to die in order to know.

Now I have to defer to the people that were eye witnesses as to what ensued next. I was gone, no longer conscious of my earthly condition.

Written by Elena Labastida Jaime's 3rd born daughter

The morning of Saturday, June 7, 2015, started out like every other morning. I decided to slowly make my way over to my parent's home for coffee. We have a priceless tradition of having coffee together every morning. I wanted to give my father more time to water his garden because it was going to be a hot day! As I perked my husband's decaffeinated coffee, I could see my father watering his garden outside my kitchen window. I walked over to my parent's home I was pleasantly surprised and happy that my mother would be join us for coffee. She usually sleeps a little later than my father and I. I greeted my mother with a warm embrace and kiss.

My father was excited to show me a picture he posted on his Facebook page. The picture was one of his El Monte high school baseball team. He motioned me to come over to the computer in his room and demonstrated the picture to me. He commented on how much Victor, my son, looked like him in the picture.

We sat down to enjoy our coffee! My mother and I on the couch and my father sat in front of us on an odd uncomfortable small Victorian chair that doesn't have any arms. Initially, I had disdain for that chair, but in retrospect that chair benefited my father greatly. My mother and I were conversing over my grandmother's care. When I saw through the corner of my eye, my father's head tilt to the right, as if he was joking around with us like he likes to do. In the second it took me to look over at my father, he slumped out of his chair and fell on the floor. My mother let out a spine chilling scream! I grabbed my mother's cell phone, dialed 911, and tossed it to her and gave her the instruction loudly, "Call 911." I kneeled next to my father, who was now curled on his right side and rolled him onto his back. I was expecting to see my father in and out of consciousness.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw! My father looked contorted and was a purplish red coloring. I knew my father was dead ... In that moment I felt sheer panic and fear. The fear I felt was twofold because I knew every minute counted before my father's organs and brain would begin to die from lack of oxygen and blood flow. But, I didn't have any formal CPR training. Jehovah, my God was with me and infusing me with the courage I needed to perform CPR immediately. My fear turned to anger! I thought, "Not like this, not like this!" I came to the quick realization that if my father was going to die, I was going to do everything I could to give him a fighting chance to live.

My mother's screams continued and at one point I thought she was going to faint. At that moment, my uncle Reuben, pulled up and my mother ran outside screaming, "Call 911! He's having a heart attack." My husband was in the laundry room of our home, which is adjacent to my parent's house and heard my mother's frantic words. My husband ran over to my parents and I recall seeing the silhouette in the front window. I felt a sense of relief knowing he was there. I looked up at him and said, "He's not breathing! Take over with chest compressions!"

I frantically asked my mother if she called 911. She said she had not made contact and was still waiting on hold. I took the phone and waited. What seemed like an eternity for the 911 operator to respond and asked her questions. I repeatedly pleaded "please send someone, my father is not breathing." I handed my mother the phone and ran back to help my husband, who was still providing CPR, to my father.

My mother called my sister's Leticia and Marisela, to inform them of what was happening. She put my eldest sister, Leticia on speaker and she gave a CPR instructions. My sister, Leticia, is a registered nurse. "30 compressions to every two breaths", she instructed.

My husband provided quality CPR to my father and I could see his color returning to his face. I was giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation and I could see my father's belly, bloating, because I was blowing too hard and filling his stomach with air. I thought, "I am going to blow his lungs out, but what does it matter if he's going to die."

In between CPR and mouth-to-mouth, I was slapping my father telling him, "Fight dad!" I knew my father could hear me because the auditory sense is the last to go. CPR is grueling and professionals administer it for approximate two minutes because of the physical demand. My uncle Reuben was standing in front of us at the entrance of the house, he appeared somewhat paralyzed and in shock. But my uncle, Reuben, courageously provided chest compressions until the paramedics arrived.

An ambulance was the first to arrive. When the paramedics were driving up our driveway, my mother ran out to hurry them. It was a male and female paramedic and they appeared too calm for such an emergency. Later on we found out that the information they received was that a man was complaining of chest pains, not full-blown cardiac arrest. The paramedic thanked us and informed us to move out of the way so he could take over. I was reluctant because I felt that they wouldn't not moving fast enough. As the male paramedic was checking my father's pulse, I could see the color draining from my father's face once again. I was screaming inside myself, "Help him!" the male paramedic announced, "I don't have a pulse!" immediately he cut open my father shirt and connected the defibrillator pads to my father's chest area.

He ordered us once again to move away from my father to avoid being shocked as well. He yelled, "Clear!" we expected my father's heartbeat to return, but it didn't. His heart went from one lethal arrhythmia to a worse one known as Asystole, (flat lining). I could see the fear in the paramedic's face as he informed the female paramedic, "I am taking over" He commenced chest compressions until the firefighters arrived.

As the firefighters were pulling up, he told the female paramedic to run out and tell them, "He is in full-blown cardiac arrest!" My sister's and a sheriff arrived sometime between the paramedics and the firefighters. The officer ordered our family behind the living room couch to permit the professionals room to work on my father. I remember a large muscular, firefighter, providing my father with chest compressions. I thought, "Oh no!, he's going to hurt my father." My family was not permitted in close proximity to my father, we cheered him on, "Come on dad, fight!" we were yelling. I know he heard us and was now fighting for his life.

Brandon Walton was the firefighter who administered an epinephrine shot that brought my father's heartbeat, back. It was such a relief to hear them say, "We got a pulse." Our family then followed the paramedics to Redlands Community Hospital. This was the beginning of a lengthy recuperating period.

In the past year, my father has suffered two cardiac arrests, a stroke, and a large blood clot in his heart. He has overcome these health obstacles, because he is taking care of his health, he has the support of a family that loves him dearly and he is truly a spiritual man that fears God.

Written by Eunice Alvarez Jaime's wife

Saturday, June 27th 2015, at approximately 7:00am, the aroma of fresh brewed coffee woke me, which meant Jaime had already made morning coffee for us. My beautiful daughter Elena would be here for our usual tradition of morning coffee with Jaime and me. I heard chatting coming from the front porch as Elena and Jaime walked in. Early in the mornings, it was Jaime's custom to water his chili, tomato and squash plants before the day's heat started.

Jaime had wanted to show our daughter Elena a picture he had posted on Facebook the night before of himself and his high school baseball team. Jaime and I had commented how much Elena's son, Dito, our grandson, looked like him (Jaime) in that photo. While he happily ushered her into our bedroom room to open Facebook and show her the post, I went into the kitchen and served our 3 cups of coffee. Within a few minutes we were all back in the living room enjoying our morning coffee.

Elena and I sat down on the sofa while Jaime pulled up a chair and sat down. He was a little quieter than usual. He did not even get a chance to take his first sip of his coffee when his head tilted down, it looked as though he had fallen asleep but then he fell to the ground. Elena immediately went down on her knees and turned him over and knew he was not breathing by the look of his face. Immediately and with no delay she started CPR (chest compressions).

She dialed 911 and tossed me the phone instructing me. She said, "Its 911 give them the address!" I ran out the front door shouting, "Jaime can't breathe!" At that point I saw my brother Reuben pull up and park. I shouted to him, "Jaime is not breathing quick call 911!" I was also on the phone with 911. I was in a state of shock.

Unbeknownst to me, my son-in-law Victor Labastida heard my cries for help and ran over. He immediately took over CPR (chest compressions) giving Elena a much needed break. Elena kept shouting, "Breathe Dad! Breathe!" I called Leticia our eldest daughter who is a registered nurse. She was already on her way. Elena had called her after Victor took over CPR and Leticia was instructing them how many compressions and breaths to give my husband because paramedics had not arrived yet. I told my brother Reuben to take over chest compressions. Meanwhile Elena was breathing into my husband's mouth per Leticia's instructions shouting, "Fight Dad! Breathe Dad!".

Jaime and I live in the back of our daughter Elena and son-in-law Victor's house. Our home is difficult to see from the street. Finally, it seemed like forever, someone said, "the ambulance is out in the street by the driveway." I ran outside and started waving to the ambulance so they immediately pulled up the long driveway. I shouted, "Hurry my husband is not breathing!" They pulled their gear out of the ambulance and came into find my husband, Jaime, on the floor with our daughter Elena, son-in-law Victor and my brother Reuben all on their knee's taking turns with chest compressions.

One of the paramedics, immediately hooked up his monitor and said "full arrest, no pulse." He cut my husband's shirt open and instructed us to stand back. He shocked my husband with the paddle. No response. The paramedic told the young female paramedic, "I am taking over." He began chest compressions. We were all shouting, "Breathe Jaime, breathe!"

It had seemed like an eternity until the firetruck pulled up. The male paramedic instructed his companion, "Go tell them it's a full blown cardiac arrest."

The firefighters came in and started working on my husband by taking over CPR. One of them took my husband's shoes off and injected him with a huge needle in the bottom of his ankle with epinephrine. A sheriff walked in and instructed us to move back out of the way. We all were shouting for Jaime to breathe. I heard my son-in-law's shout "breathe Jaime Breathe" "Come on Jimbo, breathe!" said my brother Reuben. All my daughters were shouting "Fight Dad! Breathe!"

Then one firefighter shouted, "We have a pulse let's transport!" They put Jaime on a gurney and loaded him into the ambulance. Elena and I went with Hector and Marisela in their car following the ambulance at a distance. We arrived at Redlands Community Hospital. Our eldest daughter Leticia and I were the first ones to go back into the ER.

All our daughters were present Leticia, Marisela, Elena and Gina.

The doctor said they had to rule out a heart attack versus cardiac arrest. When it was determined by the ER physician that Jaime had not suffered a heart attack but rather a cardiac arrest, it was determined he needed a higher level of care and would be transported to LLUMC Loma Linda University Medical Center for further care.

We watched as they loaded him in the ambulance and left for LLUMC. We arrived before the ambulance and sat and waited until we saw the ambulance pull in and take my husband inside. In the ER, I gave the intake clerk my husband's medical insurance ID card. At this time, two of my daughters were able to go back to be with their father while they were working on my husband. The doctors informed us that he was critical and they were going to initiate Hypothermia Protocol, I asked, "What does that mean?" They said it is called Artic Sun. Being that he had cardiac arrest this was done to preserve the organs from any damage caused by the lack of oxygen. After about an hour, I saw my husband shivering from the cold of the Artic Sun. Doctors said they were going to induce a coma and sedate him so he would feel no pain or discomfort during these cooling measures.

That was the beginning of our long journey for my husband's recovery!

Written by Leticia Eastland Jaime's eldest daughter

Most everyone has heard the saying "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans!" the morning of June 27, 2015, truly was a brutal reminder of the paradox and validity of such a quote.

After working several long, 12 hour shifts as a registered nurse at the county hospital, the thought of sleeping in on Saturday morning was ever so appealing and a much-needed break from the 5 AM alarm clock. Like I said before, life will determine and dictate the ultimate of one's plans. As I tossed and turned in bed that morning, I heard my cell phone ringing, in my mind, the thought occurred, "It's Saturday, and it's only 7 AM, who would be calling this early? As I glanced to check the caller ID, I saw that it was my sister Elena's cell phone calling. "Hello sis?" I answered.

"Let! Dad is not breathing!" screamed my sister's frantic voice.

It's interesting how the mind copes with stress. Those words might as well have been a block wall and I had just slammed up against. It's immovable power and enormous shadow was collapsing on me, as the mili seconds ticked by. They say that acute stress increases our heart rate and breathing, constricting our blood vessels and tightening our muscles. All of this happens before the next words can roll out of my tongue, "does Dad have a pulse?" "Can you hear his heart beating?" The questions kept flooding my mind as I jumped out of my bed, grabbing my clothes and shoes and yelling at my husband to get the car keys.

"No, I don't think so, dad just collapsed and he is not breathing"!!! Screamed Elena. "I'm doing chest compressions, one, two, three, four, five ..."

I had my cell phone on speaker all the way in route from Cherry Valley to Yucaipa. "All the while quietly asking Jehovah God to protect my father during this time, and coaching my sister and her husband to keep pounding chest compressions hard and fast on dad's chest. I could hear my brother-in-law, Victor, saying "Come on, Jim, hang in there!" and my sister slapping and yelling out to our father to breath!"

"Don't stop whatever you're doing, go faster and don't stop chest compressions!" I kept saying, "We are almost there. Is the ambulance there yet?" I needed to know.