rmo Kiss was a big
man....Polish....and he'd had a craniotomy.....a tumor was removed.... after the surgery,
there was disruption of his speech process....the middle function... he knew what he
wanted to say....and he could speak...but he couldn't get his mouth to say what he wanted
to say.... I'd watch him lying with the phone to his ear while his wife talked to
him....tears streaming down his face....and if he tried to speak to her....gibberish came
from his mouth.... it broke my heart... it also left him paralyzed on one side... I was
about 100 pounds soaking wet at the time....and I would assist this 6'3" man...a
large man though not fat.....but strong like ox! *s* to the bathroom....he'd lean on
me...and we'd pivot around while lowering him onto the seat.... one day however, his
slipper drug during the pivot...and instead he began to fall.....at that very moment...my
instructor's words came to me.....if your patient starts to go down...throw yourself under
them.... well....I did... and he wasn't hurt.... but, we ended up in a heap on the
bathroom floor....with him lying over me... we laughed so hard we were both
crying.....several attempts to right ourselves brought only more laughter and tears... who
knows how long we were there before we were finally able to collect ourselves from the
bathroom floor... I think of Ermo Kiss often and wonder how things went for him.......but
mostly I remember our time spent laughing in a heap....on the cold tiles of a hospital
bathroom floor....