Christ, what a fucking day...

I went to brunch this morning with a prospective business partner I met over the 'net. Attractive single woman, 25, interested in getting a bunch of design work done. I was hoping for something more than just a business relationship.

We hit it off well, chatted away, and she starts waffling on what she's going to order. She was very slim and in good shape, and I think to myself she's probably worried about the egg dishes going to her thighs. So I tease her about it, and she tells me no, its that she wants to order a shrimp omlette but might "pay for it later" because she'd had some sort of reaction to seafood before.

She gets it after deciding that its only shrimp and there probably isn't much in the omlette anyway.

The food arrives and she starts munching away but stops talking and begins looking very uncomfortable. I tell her to stop eating the omlette, and before I can say anything else she excuses herself to the bathroom. She got up from her chair and had to sit down again because she was too dizzy. Her neck had started flushing by then too, and despite the fact my EMT-P expired years ago and I've forgotten alot of what I've learned, it set the alarm bells off enough that I insisted on calling an ambulance despite her protestations.

Her lips and neck started swelling and huge hives appeared on her arms and legs and she starts getting groggy, so the guy who was sitting across from us and I lay her down on the floor and elevate her legs. We kept her talking, telling her she was going to be fine and that the medics were on the way, but then her voice got hoarse and she started wheezing. She panicked at first and fought for air.. but I held her hand, calmed her down and told her not to worry because the ambulance was on its way and she'd be fine as soon as they gave her an epinephrine injection. I believed it too, because I've seen people come back instantly from nasty allergic reactions after an epi shot. If someone in the restaurant had an epi kit, things would probably have gone much better.

It took less than 5 minutes for the Fire Dept. paramedics to get there, but by the time they wheeled in their shit and got to work she was in full blown anaphylactic shock w/ respiratory arrest. A waitress trained in CPR and I had tried pulmonary rescusitation, but we couldn't get the mask to fit her swollen lips, and no air would go in because her airway was swollen completely shut.

They put her on the ALS monitor which showed a slow but steady pulse, and 2 epi shots later the swelling and flushing had gone down a bit. She didn't start breathing again on her own immediately, so they intubated her and started ventilating manually. I felt a little bit relieved because she had what looked like a reasonable pulse and appeared less flush & swollen.

I didn't ride in the same ambulance, but they told me afterwards that despite additional drugs and fluid, they were unable to get any diastolic blood pressure reading. It was low enough that the steroids, saline and other stuff they pumped into her didn't work as well as it should have, and they lost her pulse on the way to the ER. They tried for an hour to resuscitate her in the trauma center (one of the best in California), to no avail.

I did a police report and they let me go home, but I got a call an hour ago from the cop who did the paperwork. He told me that her mother and younger sister had been located and brought to the hospital, and that, if I agreed to it, they would like to talk to me later.

What the fuck do you say to someone who's daughter you watched expire on a restaurant floor? She trusted me when I held her hand, smiled reassuringly, and told her not to worry... that she'd be fine as soon as the medics got there. And I know that she was lucid and not suffering when she slipped into unconsciousness, but because the reaction progressed so rapidly to complete airway obstruction, there were no "Tell my family I love them" sort of speeches.

Anyway, I have two hours to sit and stew before I have to meet these people. Firing up a bowl or two would be nice, but I think I owe it to them to be sober.