My cousin has fainted

Wow, what a night.  In my 10 years of American journey, I have yet called 911 for anything.  Well I popped my 911 cherry Friday night.

My cousin and I have been going to this Hookah Cafe in Pasadena every week for the past 2 months.  We always go there for some tea and food, and catch up.  She enjoys it and I enjoy it and the conversation has always been so relaxed while we are smoking.  I have always commented on her ability to smoke for such a long time.  

But I guess good quality charcoal and hookah weren't such a good mix.  Since the charcoal doesn't burn too much and doesn't produce too much ashes, the tobacco doesn't really burn out either.  So we can usually smoke it as much as we want.  We probably shouldn't have because toward the end the flavor and substance are already burned out...  But we kept puffing and the carbon-dioxide has increased in a dangerous level toward the end.  

I mean Hookah always relaxes people and sometimes people do feel light headed, so when she said she was getting dizzy she was just simply refer to that.  She didn't complain, rather she was just laughing and mentioned it.  

The dramatic scene started as soon as we stood up.  She said she was really dizzy and grabbed on to my arms.  We were both laughing and I said she was weak.  But then she wasn't making any attempt to move.  Instead her eyes started to wander around without a focus.  I was getting a bit nervous.  I told her to look at me and try not to lose her focus on me, and at the same time take deep breath to get in the oxygen.  She tried but it didn't seem to improve the situation.  She started to shiver a bit and held on to me even tighter.  I felt that she leaned on me more by the minute, then suddenly she started to slip.  

I dragged her to a bench nearby because apparently her slipping wasn't going to stop.  We missed the bench by half of the step and she went completely limp half way on the bench.  I called for help and started to dial 911 myself as well.  Half of the people from the cafe walked out and one of the lady said we needed to do some mouth to mouth.  So I started to breath into her.  At that point, I didn't know how serious this could be, I truly believed that this wasn't going to be life threatening but at the same time my mind is screaming to me "omfg you got your cousin killed within 2 months!"

But as soon as I breathed into her, I could feel that she exhaled deeply.  It wasn't the limp expulsion from someone who is already in a state of shock.  Rather, it had a bit of her own effort.  She apparently had trouble to have a more normal breathing pattern but it was easier for her to exhale.  Every time I breathed into her, she made that deep exhale, as if to signal me that it was ok.  Operative was on the line with me but I was pretty sure she was ok now and I told the officer that it was ok now. 

People brought sugar water and they were all surrounding us and encouraging me.  All of sudden, like a scene from the Pushing Daisy promotional TV ad, she just had a gigantic inhale and stood up straight.  She could talk and respond as if nothing happened.  Phased by the experience, but fully aware of the situation, she calmed and everyone down by telling them that she was completely ok.  The waitress asked us if we smoked anything before this and we told them no.  Anther waiter told us that he already called 911 as they were required to do so.  So we had to sit there for the paramedics to get here.  About 1 minute later we could hear the blaring siren.  One paramedic truck and one fire truck stopped near the cafe and 7 guys jumped out.  They asked us some simple questions and tested her blood pressure.  Once they were confident that everything was ok, they just left.  

Everything happened so fast and ended even faster that once we both sat in the car, we were both feeling like we just came back from the twilight zone.  Did that really just happen to us?  How dramatic!

Well... we came to the conclusion that next time we should just stay there for 1 hour instead of the 2.5 hours as usual.